THE actual fasting practices and motivation of more than 600 regular churchgoers of different denominations, especially during Lent, have been studied in a survey by the charity Green Christian.
The respondents had attended one or more church services per month, on average, during the previous year. Fifty-one per cent said that they had fasted from “specific types of food and/or drink for Lent”, and 29 per cent had undertaken other forms of fasting.
The survey suggests that Orthodox churchgoers are the most observant in fasting for Lent: 85 per cent of the respondents reported that they had stopped consuming specific foods and/or drinks. Roman Catholic churchgoers were slightly lower at 79 per cent, and C of E churchgoers stood at 57 per cent.
Fewer than 30 per cent of the Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and churchgoers from Independent churches fasted during Lent.
Dr Tim Cooper, Emeritus Professor of Sustainable Design and Consumption at Nottingham Trent University, who led the research, said: “While for some [fasting] may be partly motivated by a desire for improved health, other motives may be a concern about over-consumption, in its many forms, or a desire to exercise personal discipline in a society seen by many as unduly liberal.
“In this sense it represents a form of counterculturalism.”
The study found that more people in the younger age groups had fasted during Lent than those in the older age groups.
Of those surveyed, 61 per cent of the 18- to 44-year-olds reported fasting from specific foods and/or drinks, compared with 43 per cent of over-65s. Slightly more female (55 per cent) than male (46 per cent) churchgoers fasted during Lent.
The data on fasting from “all food for a short period (e.g. 24 hours)” at any time of year shows that 94 per cent of respondents from Black Majority Churches do so, with 83 per cent from Pentecostal churches and 76 per cent from New Churches.
Fewer of the surveyed Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists fasted: less than 33 per cent reported doing so.
The Food Project Officer for Green Christian, Cat Jenkins, said that the continued popularity of fasting during Lent “shows that, even in today’s more secular society, there remain important signs of the influence of Christian traditions”.
Green Christian intends to use these findings to understand food practices among Christians and to promote a more sustainable approach to consumption.
Denominations’ official teaching on fasting varies. In the Roman Catholic Church, for example, older people are dispensed from an obligation to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, though are still required to abstain from meat.
