Each year, around the latter part of winter, Lent arrives. It nearly always surprises me. Here it is, once again, summoning me to change how I typically live. — W. David O. Taylor
A Call to Sustainable Eating in 2022
Good Day Creation Care Advocates,
The ICCT Earth Friendly Practices Team is excited to share an opportunity to practice an earth friendly diet in conjunction with the Christian observance of Lent. We also offer some resources to adapt it to Ramadan and Passover.
Lent commemorates the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert. Greener Lent is becoming a yearly climate friendly action in the Triangle focusing on spiritual and environmental renewal by limiting meat consumption and eating a plant friendly diet to impact carbon dioxide emissions.
In November 2021, ICCT co-sponsored a webinar presented by chef Dilip Barman. The informative program not only presented benefits of a plant rich diet, but also demonstrated recipes. You can find the program’s recording here. Greener Lent is a wonderful follow-up action to this program.
This year Lent begins on March 2 and lasts until April 14. Greener Lent encourages individuals and groups to reduce or abstain from meat to promote spiritual and environmental well-being. The program is simple and efficient to implement. There are four fasting levels, allowing individuals choice in their level of abstaining, while providing weekly graphic feedback about the amount of carbon dioxide kept out of the atmosphere.
Who might participate:
Individuals – ANYONE, Christian, non-Christian, those with faith, or those with no faith, or those simply interested in the environment are welcome.
Groups – Congregations are welcome to contact rosemaryherhold@greenerlent.org to build a faith community “impact page” so they can see their results.
Sign-ups have already begun and will continue throughout Lent here.
While Greener Lent includes the 40 days of observance, the hope is that limiting meat consumption will become a practice that will extend beyond the end of Lent.
We also suggest:
1) During Ramadan, April 1-30, an article in The Guardian, You are what you Eid: Ramadan for Vegans, states a growing number of Muslims are adopting a plant-based diet for four weeks and a blog on the About Islam website, 4 Healthy Ramadan Recipes for Plant-Based Diet.
2) During Passover, April 15-23, a blog on the Jewish Food Hero website: 17 Delicious Plant-Based Recipes Your Eyes, Mouth and Gut Will Love This Passover and a blog on the JVS website: Your perfect plant-based Passover / Pesach
Submitted by Pat and Paul Kelly, co-leaders of the ICCT Earth Friendly Practices Team.
