Food and Fasting

Learning Objective To identify and explain the roles of food and fasting in worship Learning Outcomes All: Able to identify the importance of the Eucharist and fasting during Lent Most: able to develop reasons for the different attitudes to food Some: evaluate their own views on Christian attitudes to food and / or fasting

Starter Which of the below are Christian rules towards food? Write down those you think apply in your books.  Fish on a Friday  Roast on a Sunday  Fast at Lent  Pancakes on Shrove Tuesday

Look at the video. FEEDING THE 5000 Answer the following questions: What is the significance of sharing the food? What does this tell us about Jesus and his views on food and animals?

Genesis 9:3 ‘ Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. As I gave you green plants, I give you everything.’ What does this suggest? Some people believe that they should be Vegetarian as we should be looking after the planet and the food source that we rely upon. For others we should be stewards, as we have been told to look after the planet and this means not using the animals for food.

What about Worship? Eucharist – the celebration of the Lord’s Supper during a service. This is the displaying and the sharing of the bread and wine. Watch the following clip. Both CofE and RC have different views on what happens. COPY OUT AND EXPLAIN THE QUOTES FROM THE CATECHISMS BELOW Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraph 1333 ‘At the heart of the Eucharistic celebration are the bread and wine that, by the words of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become Christ’s Body and Blood’ Anglican Catechism ‘Q What is the outward and visible sign in the Eucharist? A The outward and visible sign in the Eucharist is bread and wine, given and received according to Christ’s command.’

Festivals Food is also linked to celebrations. You are to look at the images below, name them, link them to their relevant celebration and identify which of the reasons behind them is correct.  Showing new life (resurrection)  Cross represents the sacrifice made by Jesus  Using up the leftovers, a type of unleavened bread  Goodness of fruit and spice from the Holy Land

Fasting Luke 4:2 ‘For forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry’. COPY THE QUOTE – you need it to give a reason for fasting! All of the words below link to the idea of fasting, choose 3 of them and explain how they link to the idea of fasting  Purification  Dependent  Strength  Suffering  Commitment  Discipline

So what does fasting mean? People will give up different things for lent like chocolate or a meal. Sometimes they will collect the money they would have spent on the meal and donate it to a charity like Cafod who will donate it to people who need it. Look at the quote below and then answer the following question: ‘Doing something positive or generous can be as transforming as giving something up. It helps us to reflect on how we normally behave, and how we can make changes to our lifestyles that reflect God’s love more fully’ The Rt Revd David Urquhart, Bishop of Birmingham Do you agree with the Rt Revd David Urquhart? Give reasons for your answers.

Plenary  Answer the following question: Why do some Christians fast? (6 marks)