London Evening News cartoon

Joseph Lee (1901-1975) contribution reprinted in The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review (December 1949)

'A Question of Choice' by Geoffrey L. Rudd (1909-1995)

From the Editorial for the Winter 1955 edition of World Forum

See also: 'The Bible and Vegetarianism'

'The Veil Between' by Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957)

Lower-third portion of a montage composition which appeared in The Vegetarian dated December 7th, 1895

'Massacre of the Innocents' by Marion Reid

From The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review (February 1936)

'Adam and The Creatures' by Thomas B. Pitfield, F.R.M.C.M.

From The British Vegetarian (January/February 1968)

'Christians and Vegetarianism' by Ronald Lightowler

From World Forum (Summer 1953 edition)

See also: Quotation Quotation

Quotation: Samuel Hopgood Hart (1925)

"It is of no use to cry 'Peace, Peace' where there can be no peace, and there can be no peace in partnership with cruelty and bloodshed. God's mercy is over all His works."

Excerpt taken from 'Why be a vegetarian? - some arguments from the religious standpoint' - a lecture delivered to the Croydon Vegetarian Society and published in The Vegetarian News (November 1925 edition)

Hart portrait

'The Church of England and Meatless Days'

From The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review (March 1918)

'Civilisation and Diet' by the Rev. J. Bruce Wallace, M.A.

An address delivered to a conference held at Ballycastle, Co. Antrim from May 28th-30th, 1932 for the purpose of inaugurating a Humanitarian and Food Reform Society for Northern Ireland.

From The Vegetarian News (July 1932)

From an Anglican sermon (1873)

The above proclamation by the Rev. Algernon Godfrey Kingsford, vicar of Altcham, nr Shrewsbury; was actually written by his wife, Anna (1846-1888) who later became a Catholic with strong links to theosophy. She trained in Paris to become a medical doctor and eventually campaign against vivisection and discrimination against women in Victorian society.

The passage was discovered by Samuel Hopgood Hart and published in The Vegetarian News (March 1929).

'Praying and Preying'

From The Vegetarian News (Winter 1956)

Quotation:'Something Lacking' (1931)

"It must always be a most serious matter for the Christian Church, should its ethic at any time prove to be less advanced than that of the secular community, or indeed of any section of it."

From the Editorial in The Vegetarian News (June 1931)

The Rev. & Hon. Canon Edward Lyttelton (1855-1942)

From The Vegetarian (November 1917)

On 'Christ and Vegetarianism'

'Christianity and Flesh-Eating' by the Rev. and Hon. E. Lyttleton: Part 5

From The Vegetarian (August 1919)

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

'John Wesley - an Appreciation of the man by George Bedborough'

From the December 1919 edition

'Vegetarianism and the Christian Ethic'

Correspondence with editorial input from The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review of September 1949

Christian values and Vegetarianism

A related piece from The Baptist Times dated September 2, 2011 (rather re-christened for future consumption!)

Other recent articles and letters

Quotation: Marjorie Waddicor (1960)

"If we strive to carry out His teachings in daily life, our conscience clearly tells us that the brutal suffering involved in the breeding of sentient animals for food is not only condemned by a God of Love but must crucify Him daily as it does all who strive to follow Him in spirit"

From a letter entitled 'Christian standpoint' which was published in the September/October edition of The British Vegetarian

From The Vegetarian Messenger (February 1901)

See related essay by William Axon

'Christianity and Flesh-Eating' by the Rev and Hon. Edward Lyttelton: Part 4

From The Vegetarian (May 1919)

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 5

Rev. James Schofield (1790-1855)

Retrospective portrait from The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review, January 1935 and theological extract from his Introduction to The System of Vegetable Cookery, as used by the Society of Bible Christians (1839) which abridged material from earlier editions.

Rev. Richard Baxter (1615-1691)

17th Century letter (anon)

From a Collection of Letters published in 1660 by Sir Tobie Matthew and discovered by London Vegetarian Society member Bertram G. Theobald.

Mr. Theobald further researched the reference to 'Prudentius' and concluded that the line refers to a passage by Aurelius Prudentius Clemens from A.D. 405 which prayed:

"Grant to thy servant, bounteous God, this boon in answer to their prayers, that by a light repast refreshed, their limbs may strong and active be, nor ever feel the weight imposed by loaded stomach gorged with meat."

Above reproductions taken from The Vegetarian News (March 1934)

Quotation: Rev. A. Bodington (1895)

"We do not think society is so perfect that it cannot be mended. We do not think that the Christian churches are so wise and good that they have nothing further to learn."

From a paper read to the Autumn Congress of the Vegetarian Federal Union, held in Birmingham.

Transcript published in The Vegetarian dated February 29th, 1896

'Vegetarianism and the C.O.P.E.C. Movement' by Charles W. Forward

In 1924, a major Christian gathering was chaired by William Temple, Anglican Bishop of Manchester: the Conference on Politics, Economics and Citizenship.

There was no published reply to the above proposition from a leading lecturer, historian and editor of various vegetarian publications.

From The Vegetarian News (January 1924)

Hannah Hurnard (1905-1990)

Former Baptist minister and Bible College teacher, John Wood, traces the life of the missionary whose publications included at least two theological vegetarian booklets: Children of the Highest and The Way of the Holy, Harmless Lamb.

Monarch publications, 1996

'Christianity and Vegetarianism' by L. Pearce

From The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review (February 1951)

See Article

'The Race that is set before us' by Rev. A.O. Broadley

Sermon delivered at the Bible Christian Church of Salford, on 11th October 1908 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Vegetarian Society.

Transcript published in The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review (December 1908)

See also: 'A Vegetarian Church'

Quotation: Bishop Joseph Butler (1692-1752)

"Man in his pride is too apt to believe that all the world is made for him; yet the earth teems with life in other forms, even in regions never trodden by man, and in corners to which he cannot penetrate, and where it has no relation whatever to him"

Cited in a letter to The Dietetic Reformer and Vegetarian Messenger (October 1863)

'Vegetarianism and Christianity'

The Vegetarian Society position, as presented in the January 1951 edition of The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review.

See related article by Professor Allsopp

'Peter's Vision' by the Rev. James Clark

From a letter dated December 15th 1862 and published in The Dietetic Reformer and Vegetarian Messenger (January 1863 edition).

See: Portraits and tract on the same theme from 1902

'Christianity and Flesh-Eating' by the Rev and Hon. Edward Lyttelton: Part 3

From The Vegetarian (March 1919)

Part 1
Part 2
Part 4
Part 5

Roman Catholic priest's testimonial (1892)

From the digest pages of The Vegetarian Messenger (February, 1892)

Quotation: The Rev. Prof. J.E.B. Mayor (1883)

"Take no thought," says the text; but we must not suppose that it teaches carelessness and idleness. The words "take thought" have changed their meaning since our translation was made in King James's time. Our Lord does not say there is too much thought in the world; there is far too little; He does not even say that we are not to think of what we eat or drink. It is want of thought that makes drunkards and gluttons. No, we want more thought, but less anxiety and care. "Take no thought," in our English now, would be "be not anxious," "be not fearful," for God will provide for you, as He does for the birds of the air."

From a Lenten sermon which stemmed from Matthew 6:25-26.

'Temperance for Body and Mind' dwelt largely upon teetotalism although a full transcript was published in The Dietetic Reformer and Vegetarian Messenger of July 1883.

See: Portrait

'Roman Catholics and Fish-Eating'

London Vegetarian Society abridgement of an Editorial which appeared in The Tablet. From The Vegetarian News (May 1932).

Lieutenant Colonel T.W. Richardson (1852-1920)

Profile of the Order of Danielites' founder

See also: 'A Vegetarian Conversazione' and 'Consistency'

'A Clergyman's Conversion'

Final paragraph from an essay which was reprinted in The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review (April 1909 edition)

Obituary: Professor Cecil John Cadoux (1883-1947)

Portrait from C.J. Cadoux - Theologian, Scholar and Pacifist by Elaine Kaye (Edinburgh University Press, 1988)

Text from The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review (September 1947)

See also: Lecture

'Christianity and Flesh-Foods' by the Rev and Hon. Edward Lyttelton: Part 2

Published with the sub-heading, 'Christ's example' in The Vegetarian, November 1918 edition.

Part 1
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

100th post: 'Shall I Slay?' - editorial reply by Douglas Macmillan (1884-1969)

The above letter and response was published in a short-lived Christian vegetarian periodical, entitled The Better Quest (November, 1911 edition). In the same year, Macmillan founded the society which eventually became Macmillan Cancer Support, as noted by Dr. James Gregory in Of Victorians and Vegetarians (Tauris Academic Studies, 2007).

The London Vegetarian Society published 'Shall I Slay' as a tract by Macmillan in 1909.

'Vegetarianism in the Pulpit'

From The Vegetarian News (September 1927)

Michael Fryer, who founded the important, if mostly forgotten, Crusade Against All Cruelty to Animals in 1955, wrote of "...the late Basil G. Bourchier, whose church was situated close to my home. This man rarely stood up in his pulpit without making some outspoken reference to the plight of suffering animals and man's inhumanity towards them. Far from causing people to turn away from his services, it had the opposite effect. Although his church was in size 'a young cathedral', one could not get a seat in his heyday unless one was there at least an hour before the service began."

Editorial, The Living World (Vol.1, No.1. 1970)

Rev Bourchier biography

Quotation: Ronald M. Lightowler (1959)

"While we realise that there are a great many Christians to whom our plea would be in vain, may we ask those who are Christians in heart and spirit, and not merely of the intellect, to consider well what they do, especially when they approach the Altar to make their Christmas Communion, in the light of the words of one of the beautiful prayers in the Anglican liturgy, "here we offer and present unto Thee O Lord ourselves, our souls and bodies to be a holy, reasonable and living sacrifice. . . "

Those bodies which you offer, of what are they built up, of the pure substances provided in the "kindly fruits of the earth" or of the flesh of the slaughtered creatures of the same Creator Who also created you?"

From: 'Christians Awake' - Editorial in The British Vegetarian (November/December 1959)

See also letters from 1953 and 1974

'Christ Crucified' by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919)

Short excerpt from her Poems of Experience (Gay & Hancock, 1910)which appeared in The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review of October 1941.

'The Animal Kingdom - Why? Whence? Whither?' by Basil Viney

A short treatise which explores the origins, nature and destiny of creation by a clergyman of the Unitarian church.

Published by James Clarke & Co. Ltd, 1965

See: Autobiography