You may be under the impression that Lent is a time of spiritual and mental preparation for Easter. Not according to contemporary Anglican dogma; Lent has a “deeper challenge” than preparing for such trifles as the atonement and resurrection. What it’s really about is using less fossil fuel so that we can create a “sustainable world”, the only world left to clergy who have ceased to believe in the next.
From here:
The Anglican Communion’s Environmental Network (ACEN) is encouraging Christians around the world to take part in a “carbon-fast” this Lent.
The network is calling on Anglicans to take a deeper challenge than fasting from coffee, alcohol or chocolates this Lent, by reducing the use of carbon based fuels on which we all depend.
“We will take small steps for a more sustainable world, and by doing so rediscover a different relationship with God, with Creation and with one another,” the group says on its website, adding: “I can change the world a little in 40 days, but I can change myself a lot!”
For the truly green, terminal Anglican there is the Eco Container, as advertised in that bastion of anti-transcendence, the Niagara Anglican. In my Angligreen house there are many mansions – they all look like boxes, though.
I never considered a carbon-fast for Lent before but it’s a great idea. Thanks for passing it on David!
The ACoC would certainly chastise Elijah for recklessly building an offering altar and enticing the Lord to release all those bad hydrocarbons by lighting it!
Eco-anity:
The all-inclusive god so loved the world he gave us free choice to chose sustainability, all-inclusive diversity, and hedonism, so whosoever shall follow these tenets of faith, shall die yes, but shall die with a small carbon footprint, and free of the commitment of discipline and obedience, and shall dwell in the bathhouse of eternity.
The carbon footprint in the Vale of Siddim is the one that should be getting our attention these days.
Nicely said.
Driving less is a good idea. Walking more is a better idea.
…and turning off our furnaces and electricity, and refusing to buy any food that has been delivered to stores using fossil fuels… etc, etc, etc.
In Canada, not everyone worries about climate change, recycling, or energy efficient communities. It is possible that our planet earth is headed for extinction. But, Christians believe that at the end of history there will be the new heavens and the new earth. Living between the two comings of Jesus, should we be good stewards of God’s creation?
I agree Michael. We are called to be good stewards of God’s creation. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I am guessing that the cynics above are no younger than late 40’s as most Christians younger than that would applaud efforts to be more “green.” But this is another issue.
With regards to the the carbon fast idea, I would be curious for any of the people above to actually say what is wrong with it (rather than just mock the idea). Most give up certain foods for Lent but I know of others who have given up other luxuries as a way to prepare for the Easter season and carbon is a creative way that I have not heard of someone doing. Like food, I likely will not be able to “fast” completely from the use of carbon during the 40 day period but I can at least minimize it and use my bus trips to work as a time for prayer and reflection.
So unless someone has a problem with the general idea of fasting for Lent, I’d like to know what exactly is wrong with trying a carbon fast as a way to draw closer to Christ during this season. I must be missing something as the idea sounds pretty cool to me. I would appreciate a genuine response from J Lawrence, Terry, abigail, or Jim Muirhead on what exactly is wrong with this idea as I was thinking of doing it. Thanks.
If a “carbon fast” brings you closer to God and more open to Christ, go for it.
Carbon fast? Just another ditzy idea from the eco-nuts. Man, but that stuff is getting old, mainly because it’s based on junk science in the first place. Good grief!
“Carbon fast?”
Not known for my cracking sense of humour, this normally taciturn Australian-Scot burst out laughing.
Thus proving again (as if further proof were needed), that the Anglican Church of Canada has become merely the punchline of the joke that is its own earnest attempt to create a religion from political correctness and social mores of the present hour.
So inept is its leadership, that one almost feels sorry for them.
Almost, but not quite.
I have never really been a fan of carbon ,although my Mom ,when she burnt my toast always said it was good for you because it absorbed the poisons in your system. on that thought ,maybe the ACC should consider consuming a large portion of carbon for there is a lot of poisons in its system. But no,I won’t be consuming any carbon this lent ,or any other season of the year.its just not that good.
Funny that the virile is directed by Tony and Jason at the ACC, when this is an Anglican Communion initiative – not an ACC one (perhaps it would have been too much to click the link, hey fellas?).
Last time I checked, ANiC claimed to be part of the Anglican Communion. So I guess if there’s a punchline, Jason it’s on us all – and if there’s someone who should eat carbon Tony – it’s all of us.
On a more serious note, as a younger orthodox and Evangelical Anglican who happens to care about the earth and believe that the Holy Bible has a lot to say about stewardship of creation, I’m saddened that orthodoxy has to be lumped in with a cynical, bitter disdain for God’s creation and those who care for it.
This approach will only divide believers rather than unite them in Jesus name!
As for Carbon Fast – sure, I’d rather focus on the passion of Jesus in preparation for His resurrection at Easter. But I wonder if it can’t be both/and – if he truly loved this world that He gave his life for it.
Either way – perhaps we can focus on Jesus as Lord instead of cynicism and virile?
@Bill: I am also “young”, but I’m not Anglican. I’m Reformed. That’s right: the most conservative; the most orthodox of Protestants – rigid, narrow, Calvinistic. And as far as I’m concerned, all of Anglicanism is a great big heterodox joke – except in small dogged pockets where some congregations manage to keep real Christianity alive largely by clinging to the scriptures and shunning ridiculous social\political nonsense which has been elevated to the status of religious belief.
I’ve got to tell you, I seriously question your orthodoxy if you think that the Bible speaks only of being a “good steward” of the earth. The Bible also speaks of the Earth passing away, wearing out like a garment, and that this points to the nature of the fading order of things. We have no abiding habitation on the Earth. God has promised to sustain the natural order unto the ending of the world – there will always be a season of harvest and a season of planting – because such things are a temporary provision of a fallen world.
The problem with making much of the “good stewardship” thing, is that proponents of this concept magnify it far, far beyond the biblical boundaries and proportions. They do so because, secretly, that is all they really have.
I find it incredible that you make the scripture’s assertion that Jesus died for the world to somehow refer to the environment. That’s the kind of thrifty, small-town shopkeeper gnarliness with the scriptures – the reckoning of texts that is a bit too clever by half – that so characterises the derangement of wider Anglicanism.
When the scriptures tell us that Christ died for the world, it is presenting before us the glorious and majestic truth that the Lord’s promised Messiah, Deity in incarnate form, enters his own Creation and gives his very life for both the Jews and the Gentiles in one act of awesome reconciliation that draws together the Holy People of God and those “sitting in darkness” afar off; together brought by grace into communion with One God who is the origin of all things.
To take that text and make it applicable to a Carbon Fast and environment is one of the most perplexing and peculiar misreadings of one of the clearest texts in the Bible. But then again, it is precisely because the text is so clear that it has become ripe to be twisted into novel plastic forms.
I agree: focus on Jesus Christ – Him Who is True – who said precisely nothing about the environment, but an awful lot about living for heavenly realities.
If this “carbon fast” fad is a small part of “creation care”, there is a sound scriptural basis for it. My concern, and I suspect most of the writers on this thread, is that “creation care” is a hobby horse ridden all over gospel tenets.
Nicely written post.
Jason, this is one of the best and most worthy comments I have ever seen on this site.
Amen.
As I understand the tradition (if that is the correct word to use here) the purpose of giving up something for lent is to make us mindful of all that Jesus Christ gave up for us, and in so doing bring ourselves closer to Christ.
The very idea of using this tradition as part of an environmentalist movement is nothing short of a high-jacking and abuse of our traditions.