For those who do not know me, I am a bizarre combination of atheist and theology student. I keep being told by people, from one of my best friends to a guy protesting London Pride a few years ago (i.e. not my friend), that you can’t do theology without living it. Seeing as Lent is coming up, I figure that now is the perfect time to put this to the test. Consequently, I will be giving up atheism for Lent.

“Oh my goodness!” I hear you cry. “Let us support you in your efforts by donating money to charity!”

Why, thank you, kind philanthropist. What an excellent idea! For the next forty days, I shall engage in a program of attempted faith realised in a variety of works (covenantal nomism, y’all). In response, I ask you to keep up my motivation by providing a steady stream of money to Mencap: a very important charity with the Christ-like mission to improve the lives of some of the most marginalised members of our society.

In order to encourage you to participate, here is a breakdown of just what this entails for me:

1.       A Lenten sacrifice: I am an unrepentant sinner of the first degree. My Lenten sacrifice is the comfort of my non-belief, along with all the time devoted towards this crazy project. I will honestly try my best to believe, which I interpret to mean conceiving of my experience in the world in light of Christian categories and narratives, and doing my best to being open to revelation if it arises.

2.       Going to Church: I will attend a Church service at least once a week, as well as the Ash Wednesday service that begins the period. The default church I will attend will be the Cathedral here in Durham where I go to university, because if you’re going to be a cultural Christian you might as well be an Anglican (jk!).

3.       Some daily act of devotion: this includes saying a prayer, going to Church, meditating on the mysteries of the faith, or watching a program on EWTN without laughing.

4.       Fasting: I love my food. However, it is traditional during Lent to fast during Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all Lenten Fridays. This means eating one full meal on each of these days. Furthermore, meat (but not fish) is forbidden on Fridays.

5.       Keeping a reflective diary: I shall attempt to write a blog with daily or every-few-daily updates detailing my journey of faith (or non-non-belief), reflecting on the nature of the experience. You can find this here: http://nicoleteslentensacrifice.tumblr.com/

Furthermore, for an additional donation of £5 (that means after an initial donation) I will attend a service at a Church of YOUR choosing*. Just donate, and then contact me. I’ll post updates on the blog mentioning when I’ve been booked. This is possibly the cheapest price anyone has ever paid for the chance at a soul, so I expect people to take this up (although once I’ve been to a Church, I’m withdrawing this offer from its congregation in order to give the others a chance. I know how well funded you are, DICCU).

If you happen to be God who’s reading this, I’d just like to point out that this is an excellent opportunity to get me on side. I’ll be keeping an eye out for signs. To the mere mortals, Lent is 40 days, which is a really long time, and I’m also not exactly the sort of person welcomed with open arms in every church - so this is actually quite a challenge. Consequently, I hope you can donate generously to the cause!

Thanks

Nicolete xxx


*with a DH1 postcode