It was with a certain amount of wry amusement that I read about anti-English attitudes by the Scots when “Kesting (Moderator, Church of Scotland) made her remarks in an address for Lent after visiting London.” ('Scots perpetuate sectarianism' PR April) I am seventy-seven and in my young day in Scotland we neither observed nor celebrated Lent. It was a strictly Roman and Anglican event. I checked with a contemporary friend from Aberdeen and she agreed. Nor for that matter did my wife, a Canadian from Ontario, remember Lent being observed. Back in the 16th century John Knox did not observe Lent because it was not mentioned in Scripture.
The period of Lent is that between the end of winter and the beginning of spring; the period when foodstuffs put aside, a strictly secular activity, to see populations through winter were running low. Depending on the productivity of autumn harvesting and the severity of winter, people were often put on reduced rations, “short commons”. In Edinburgh University in my day, early 50's, 'Meal Monday' was celebrated as a reminder of the days when students went home to renew their oatmeal and dried and salted herring for the remainder of the academic year.
Perhaps before entering Presbyterian theological colleges, a better and more appropriate education is required by potential ministers, e.g. Greek, Hebrew, Philosophy, Geography and History (Ancient and Modern) and sadly in some cases English.
