Congratulations to Nicholas Henshall on an excellent Parish Practice on fasting, (30 January). As well as a personal, corporate and prophetic action, one could add that Jesus also referred to fasting as a means of changing things. In Mark 9 the disciples asked: “Why could we not drive this devil out?” to which Jesus replied: “Because this one can only be driven out by prayer and fasting.”Yet Isaiah is quoted also: “Is this the fast I ask of you? The kind of fasting I want is this: remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, let the oppressed go free and feed the hungry” (Isaiah 5:6–7).So fasting has many meanings. We have enlisted it this year by producing a vegetarian recipe book, Lent Fast, Vegetarian Feast, in which we suggest th