Fasting = one meal per day?

[JHunt777]

I would be interested to know, for those belonging to different TOC/GOC Synods, in which Synods is the traditional practice of one meal per day after 3pm during fasting periods practiced? I realize that one's spiritual father can relax this standard on an individual basis for medical reasons or other serious conditions, but I would be interested to know in general:

1. Whether, along with the instructions on what to eat and what not to eat on a Fast day, you are also instructed in your church that one should only have one meal per day after 3pm on fast days, and
2. What TOC/GOC Synod you belong to

In the intro to the Lenten Triodion, Met Kallistos says that while fasting rules have varied from time to time and place to place, the rule of one meal per day after 3pm on Fast days is a consensus. St. Gregory Palamas in his homilies also affirms that Christians have one meal per day in the evening during a fasting period, and he comments that this rule is light enough that anybody can do it without undue burden. St. Gregory is so insistent upon this practice that if someone claims that they are too ill to keep this rule, he instructs clergy not to take such claims at face value but to send such people to a trustworthy and honest, pious Orthodox physician for validation of such claims.

Thank you in advance for your contribution.

[jgress]

From what I know, St Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain in his Confessional prescribes the canonical fast of one meal after the ninth hour (or the evening, depending on your source). But in his Handbook of Spiritual Counsel, when he mentions the Wednesday and Friday fasts he seems to imply that only the Fathers of Mt Athos kept the one meal rule in all strictness. At our monastery of the Holy Ascension, it was the custom to eat twice a day every day (except at certain times like the first three days of Lent or Good Friday), but now I'm told they keep a much stricter regimen.

The one meal rule is not common practice at St Markella's at any rate. Certainly it is not considered the standard, although for all I know some keep it.

There is a book by Bishop Auxentius of Photiki "Fasting in the Orthodox Church" which I imagine will answer your questions, though I haven't read it myself. You can get it from ctosonline. Bishop Kallistos' edition of the Triodion is full of interesting information, but his prescriptions, either for fasting or for the order of services, should not be taken necessarily as the universal practice (even where he claims it is the universal practice).

Of course, I do not recommend keeping the one meal rule unless your confessor has specifically instructed you to do so, but I imagine I don't need to say that.