The Vicarage
15 St. Mark's Road
Dear friends,
Some years ago I was involved in a group discussion with some Christians and Muslims in Leicestershire on how members of each faith respectively observe the fasts of Lent and Ramadan. The exchanges were friendly and informative but I came away with the impression that the Muslims thought that we Christians don't take our faith very seriously when it comes to fasting, and that to even call Lent a fast is, to say the least, stretching credibility.There is some truth in this. How many of us would be willing to undertake to eat or drink nothing between the hours of sunrise and sunset, which is the norm for fit and healthy Muslims during the Holy Month of Ramadan? I have great admiration for everyone who can take their faith seriously enough to do that. Giving up sweets or chocolates, or refusing second helpings is not quite the same.
Incidentally, I have a friend, himself a committed Christian, who taught RE in a school that had a large
proportion of Muslim students. He made a practise of keeping Ramadan as strictly as any Muslim, and though he found it very difficult, he managed it. It earned him both the respect and curiosity of his Muslim students. They could not understand why a non-Muslim would endure such privations when his faith did not demand it, and some even thought that he must be a Muslim, otherwise he would never attempt it. I daresay that many of us who are non-Muslims wonder why he would want to. As someone who enjoys his food (perhaps too much) I find it quite daunting. But it certainly helped him to understand a little more clearly what faith means to a Muslim. This has to be a very helpful thing to do when there is so much
ignorance and misinformation about matters of faith.We are rapidly approaching the season of Lent, and we will no doubt be observing it in the way we decide is most appropriate, and this will be different for each of us. Perhaps here, in this matter of choice, is one of the main differences between the way we keep Lent and our Muslim friends observe Ramadan. Their way is set down and prescribed, with little room for deviation. We have some guidance from Church tradition, but by and large each person is left to his or her devices to decide what is most appropriate. Those of us from the Anglican or Free Church Tradition tend to stress individual choice perhaps even more than those who come from a Roman Catholic or Orthodox tradition.
So, given this standpoint, I am not going to suggest what you ought to be doing this Lent, but I will offer a thought. Why not use Lent-however you might choose to observe it-to discover a little more about another faith? If by the time Easter arrives we know a little more about some people or even one person, who lives by a faith different from ours, and we understand their point of view a little more clearly-even if we don't agree with it-then we have done something towards addressing one of the most pressing needs of our present age.In the end it comes down to loving our neighbours. We cannot really claim to love them if we don't try to understand them.
Every blessing
Frank Willett.