On the first weekend in October, thousands of churches around the world celebrate the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi by holding the Blessing of the Animals.
And for the first time in a number of years, such a service was performed at St. Mark’s Anglican/Lutheran Church in Midland Sunday afternoon.
Outside, several large bowls of drinking water beckoned invitingly, while inside, a table full of treat bags donated by Global Pet Foods on King Street lured the unlikely congregation into the church.
They started to arrive early, in ones and twos. Some were on leashes and some turned up in carriers (mostly the pets, though some of the people were dragged through the doors at the other end of the leash). By the time the service started, 22 dogs and five cats had brought 55 humans to church.
You’d think it would be chaos, but nobody peed on the pews, nobody growled at anyone else, and even the animals were on their best behaviour. Poop bags were available if needed, but there were no takers.
Dogs who had previously only met at the local dog park or on the street while out for a walk greeted one another, noses to tails, and looked on, drooling, as each human was given a treat bag to share with their furry companions.
Cats cowered in carriers, in terror for their very lives, surrounded by strange smells, strange humans and strange dogs.
After several minutes of enthusiastic milling about, everyone found a place to be seated and things settled down, though the occasional bark or meow could be heard among the joyful cries and greetings of the people.
The congregation included several seniors who don’t even have pets, but who came to join in the fun. And those humans whose pets brought them along gained new friends, and sang in company with like-minded others to a rousing chorus of ‘All God’s Creatures’, a nifty little bluegrass number that that had people clapping and stomping their feet, and dogs scrambling to hide under the pews in a vain attempt to protect paws and tails from musical mayhem.
Rev. Veronica Roynon told the congregation the story of St. Francis, while her grand-dog Stanley took up most of the centre aisle with his scratching. It is allergy season after all.
The service was performed by Rev. Ruth Knapp, whose dog ‘Thenie’ (Athena) was one of the first to be blessed. And both priests were careful to name each animal and make eye contact, as they sought God’s blessing upon them.
The whole service took about an hour. You could practically see the halos forming as each animal received his or her blessing.
Afterwards, some people took their lives in their hands and carried their cats without the protection of a carrier while the hounds looked on. But all the blessings must have played a part since both felines and canines seemed to get along … or at least ignore one another.
Despite the odd bark or hiss, the service went remarkably smoothly, though the church’s groundskeeper will probably have to replace the flowers outside. They seemed a perfect height for at least half the dogs to pee on afterwards.
