In progress… xoxo, Erika+
What is Eating Liturgically? The short answer? It’s mindful meal planning around the Episcopal Liturgical Calendar, which the Rev. Erika began as a spiritual practice in 2016, long before she began discernment for ordination in the Episcopal Church. It has grown to a social media presence, and is an ongoing source of spiritual contemplation, prayer, and reminder to eat delicious food. It involves noticing feast and fast days, and intentionally *not* feasting or fasting on “fierce” days. The long answer? Read more HERE.
What is the Episcopal Liturgical Calendar? It is the calendar of the church seasons, feast days, and special events laid out starting from Jesus’ birth (Advent) to the time after Pentecost (Ordinary Time). The church calendar is laid out in The Book of Common Prayer, and the big picture is entirely dependent on Easter – the liturgical seasons like Lent and Pentecost/Ordinary Time are oriented to that date. The weekly rhythm is oriented around Sunday, the weekly feast remembering Christ’s resurrection (so, also Easter). For the Daily Office (and also, Eating Liturgically), you orient yourself to the larger liturgical season and what weekday it is after which Sunday within that season.
Do all Episcopalians eat this way? Oh, heavens no. This is very much something I, Erika the individual person, decided to do…although the Book of Common Prayer which all Episcopalians are to orient themselves to in worship and prayer *does* include Feast Days and Special Days of Devotion for fasting and prayer. There is a very wide latitude as to how to incorporate such things into your personal spiritual life, and there is no Episcopal “rulebook” on how to eat. This is not like the Roman Catholic tradition of fasting from meat on Fridays, for example – this is not a mandate from on high, but a practice from within…if it speaks to you…
Do I have to be Episcopalian to try out Eating Liturgically? Nope. I am 100% Episcopalian and the calendar and theological understandings referenced in my contemplations are 100% Anglican…but even within that umbrella, there’s a wide range of interpretation of things. I am in an interfaith family, and I’m finishing up a masters in inter-religious studies, and think other perspectives could be really fruitful in this kind of spiritual practice. If you love God, or love Food, or love Calendars, or long for some Order To Your Week…please, you are very very welcome.
What is a Feast Day?
What is a Fast Day?
What is a Fierce Day?
What is a Fragile Day?
How is this not a diet/disordered eating?