CofE Bishops for a non-veggie Lent

Okay, so longer term readers will recall that I don't eat meat and that my position is that the ecological footprint of meat-eating is just to big for meat consumption at western levels to be a sustainable practice. I have no problems with the idea of properly humane slaughter etc. I just think that the earth cannot afford for us all to be full-time meat eaters. So I have over the last few years encouraged people to adopt the ancient [and in the case of the Orthodox churches, contemporary] practice of becoming vegan or vegetarian or at least cutting down significantly on meat eating in Lent. So imagine my sense of "Grrr" when I read this article, and then my own former bishop offering ill thought out rejections of the idea. In fact I think that Bishop David James really cannot have thought about his answer. I can only think that he was under a time pressure and was far too off the cuff...

The Bishop of Bradford, the Rt Rev David James, a keen lover of curries, didn't think twice about turning the idea down: "As I am not a vegetarian it would be hypocritical of me to support your initiative,"

The problem is that the reason given really does not work, does it? Let me illustrate by reworking the quote:
"As I am a chocolate eater, it would be hypocritical of me to support giving up chocolate." Surely the point of a Lenten discipline of this kind is to do something that you wouldn't normally. I can only think he misunderstood the nature of what he was being asked ...

"… St. Gregory writing to St. Augustine of England laid down the rule, 'We abstain from flesh meat, and from all things that come from flesh, as milk, cheese, and eggs.' This decision was afterwards enshrined in the 'Corpus Juris', and must be regarded as the common law of the Church."

Church of England Bishops:
Filed in: Christian, vegetarian, Anglican, Lent, fast