The bishop of Norwich, the Right Reverend Graham Usher, has suggested that Anglicans might like to abstain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent. We could eat fish instead, he says, in keeping with the tradition that is still observed by many Catholics, and was semi-observed by most Brits until about fifty years ago.
The point of the old tradition was to encourage remembrance of the events of Good Friday, through a minor piece of abstinence. The bishop is doubtless all for the remembrance of Christ’s suffering, but he emphasises a more practical purpose. Such a practice would help to reduce climate change. If Anglicans opted for meat-free Fridays all year, there would be a reduction of 40,00 tonnes of CO2, equivalent to 60,00 return flights to New York.
Instead of being a grim negative thing, being constrained in our choices could be part of something positive
Such an intervention is easily criticised as conceptually muddled.
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