15 February 2007
I'm a consumer - get me out of here!
· 46 days without shopping for anything but essentials
The average UK household spends £443 a week, with £58 on recreation
& culture and £62 a week on transport. But what if we didn't?
What if we said 'no' to all this spending and settled on just
buying what we need?
Michaela Youngson and Anna Drew from Methodist Church House will be
doing just that for Lent this year, and are inviting people of all
backgrounds to join them Ð a project they are calling 'no new
shoes'.
Michaela, Methodist Secretary for Pastoral Care and Spirituality,
said: 'It's about becoming more aware of how our needs and desires
affect the world around us. Prawns caught in Scotland get flown to
Thailand, shelled by hand and then sent back to the UK for sale.
Clothes are made in sweatshops, food is processed beyond all
recognition and our insatiable appetite for more is fuelling
climate change. Is any of this really necessary?'
'I love to shop til' I drop and there's a great sense of
satisfaction in taking part in the most popular hobby in the UK
today - but just what are we buying into? I think a lot of our
shopping habits say something about how we try to feed spiritual
hunger. We fill our lives with material goods, without really
thinking about where any of it comes from or the effect it may have
on the environment or our fellow human beings.'
Lent is traditionally a time when Christians fast or give certain
things up in order to refocus on God and spend time in prayer and
contemplation, following the example of Jesus who spent 40 days in
the wilderness to prepare for his ministry.
Anna said: ''no new shoes' is a Lent experiment Ð we want to find
out whether it changes the way we think about ourselves and our
world if for 46 days we only purchase essential items. The hardest
part is deciding what really counts as 'essential'!'.
Michaela and Anna will be charting their progress on a blog: http://nonewshoes.blogspot.com
with regular updates.