Blessing of the Animals

Yesterday was Bethlehem's First Annual Blessing of the Animals. I say first annual because it was a great success and I cannot see it not being repeated.

We were hoping to have the blessing outside under the cross, but the weather was not cooperating. After being threaten with a Nor'eastern in the weather forecast from Friday, it finally started to rain some on Sunday. While it was never full Nor'eastern force, it was drizzly, to slow rain all morning.

So after worship, Ellen and I stuck around, re-arranged the furniture in the community room, set up chairs, made coffee, put out the treat bags that the confirmation kids made the day before, and got the place ready.

And just as we were really starting this process, we got a phone call asking if the blessing was still on even with the rain. YES!!! Someone is coming, someone who was not at church that morning, someone who was not familiar with the church. ALLELUIA!! Community-outreach event it is.

And then when Ellen went to go get donuts and some other last minute stuff, another phone call came. WOO-HOO!

So all told we had about 30 people and 14 dogs in the flesh plus many other animals (cats, fish, lizards, hamsters) represented by pictures, drawing and just in name. And $86 was raised for ROAR, the local animal shelter.

30 people might not seem like a huge success to most churches, but that is more people than were in church that morning, and out of the 30, over half were non-members.

And what was the service like? It was just a simple service with a few prayers, a few readings, and then individual blessings of the animals. The individual blessing was pretty much mass chaos, especially considering we were inside and all the dogs wanted to sniff and smell each other.

I am also happy to report that Daisy was a very gracious host and very well behaved to all the dogs that invaded the church that she normally has the run of.

Bless O God, this your creature _____, and all who are involved in its care and protection. Bless the food that it eats, the place where it sleeps, the love that it gives and the caretakers who it calls their family