Word: lenten
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...Lenten Lament...
...have been accustomed to singing the Lenten hymn, Lord Who Throughout These Forty Days. After reading of Bishop Donegan's suggestion that Lent be shortened from 40 days to a single week or two [March 12], our organist left for me the following note: "Perhaps next year we'll be singing Lord Who Threw Out These Forty Days...
...hardly more austere than the Drinking Man's Diet-and it may soon be easier still. Technically, Orthodox Christians must abstain from meat, dairy and oil products; even among the devout, the rule is strictly followed only for the first and last weeks of Lent. Protestant churches leave Lenten sacrifice up to the individual conscience, although some follow a regime similar to the one observed by U.S. Catholics: only one full meal on weekdays, plus two smaller meatless meals, voluntary sacrifice of some additional pleasure, such as smoking or moviegoing. But even these rules have been largely abrogated...
Some churchmen are figuring out other new ways to take the lentitude out of Lent. Operating on the sound theory that suburban commuters have no time to attend Lenten church services, the Rev. Craig Biddle III of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Morristown, N.J., took his services to the commuter. With full permission from the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, he turned the last car on the 7:17 to Manhattan into a chapel, held an Ash Wednesday service for more than 100 commuters. It was such a success that Biddle hopes to conduct similar worship-on-wheels every Thursday...
...Instead of 40. Another proposal for updating Lent came from the Rt. Rev. Horace Donegan, Episcopal Bishop of New York. "It is less than honest to maintain that a Lent of 40 days is the final word for our age," he said in an Ash Wednesday sermon. "The Lenten diet is now possible only in exclusively religious establishments. The lengthy services with their glorious lessons have become unrealistic for men and women catching commuters' trains. The quiet pace of a 17th century Lent is impossible for people living in 20th century New York. I would gladly see Lent shortened...