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Good morning. I went to an interesting gathering yesterday. It’s the custom here in West Yorkshire for church leaders from all the denominations to meet together midday on Ash Wednesday for a brief service. This year the venue was my home town of Wakefield and so the service took place on the steps of its newly restored cathedral. The theme yesterday was food and our use and misuse of food. Here are a few quotes. Food, we all need it, Jesus blessed it and shared it. Millions of people in the world do not have enough of it. We waste tons of it, we make money from it, food banks distribute it, people donate it, sharing it together can be our joy, yet it carries our injustice, it is our sin and our healing. It is our responsibility. Food was the theme of the service because yesterday saw the start of a new initiative. Many churches and charities have come together to start what they are calling an “End Hunger Fast” campaign and marked the launch of the campaign by joining in a day of fasting. Of course the campaign is well aware that for many people around the world and now here in Britain going to bed hungry isn’t a choice it’s a reality. The growth of food banks around the country is just one indication of this. People dispute the figures and interpret them in different ways, but what is not in dispute is the reality that despite the fall in unemployment figures and the efforts which the government has taken to help families with the cost of living by freezing council tax for five years and freezing fuel duty, despite such strategies thousands of families are needing to use the food banks, often with painful stories to tell. Our clergy are relating such stories because they, b living where they work, they often are the ones who have to deal with the casualties who fall through the caring net of other agencies, and that net does seem to be fraying during these difficult financial times. We have a long tradition in Britain of people of all faiths and non working together for the common good. It was after all Winston Churchill who spoke of the necessity of providing what he called “a balustrade of safety for the most vulnerable members of our society”. In times like ours, when no government could do everything, each of us is faced with the challenge of doing what we can to strengthen that balustrade. It’s why this focus on Lenten responsibility is so important. Winston Churchill went on to say that there is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies. This Lent thousands of volunteers in a variety of ways are doing just that.