From the Rector's Desk

Dear friends,

By now, some of you will have seen the front page of the Villager with its generous coverage of the most recent animal blessing, 27 April 2008, here at the parish. This was the 31st annual animal blessing and one of our most successful to date. By now we really have got this event down pat and it went very well. Our parish administrator made beautiful four-color certificates for each animal blessed. On the back of each certificate is an information page about the parish and our life together and our work in the community. We had full color postcards to hand out concerning the parish, and palm cards that lists the services we offer and the time of liturgy.

The liturgy used is an adaptation of an animal blessing liturgy developed by the Society of St. Francis, one of the church’s religious orders. The prayers in this liturgy speak eloquently of the plight of animals in our world, especially those animals that do not enjoy the elegant life that our pampered pets enjoy. It reminds us of our responsibility, or as the church puts it, our stewardship, of the animals as a part of creation.

Each animal was blessed as it was brought forward, as were those who presented the animals. One very sad moment occurred when a lady brought what were obviously the remains of two cats in tiny boxes. We cannot bless anything that is dead—if you stop to think about it, a animal which has died is no longer in need of any blessing of any sort because, whatever you might believe about animals, in death they certainly have been subsumed into the divine order of things and no longer need blessings. But the evidence of pastoral need and pain was clear, so the celebrant offered a prayer for the grieving owner and a thanksgiving for the lives of the little cats who had died.

All of which puts me in mind of the way we relate to our animals. I am not particularly an “animal person” however I do love dogs, and always enjoy the animal blessing because of the delightful dogs I get to meet. When I was a little boy, my parents had a strict “no pets in the house” rule, and were not keen on either cats or dogs, so, instead, I had a duck. Yes, I know, I suppose that event explains a lot. But she was my duck and I loved her. And she lived for seventeen years, for heaven’s sake, which, I think put her clearly in the range of superannuated waterfowl.

Some of you remember my two dogs, Rachel the foundling hound who appeared one day at Wade House and never left, and Daniel, who was known for biting all and sundry in particularly strategic locations. I miss both of them and think kindly of them when I remember them. Which I do, every Animal Blessing Day.
Animals serve an important function in our lives. For those of us who live in cities, they put us closer to the created order and add a note of liveliness to our crowded ways and our towering buildings. For many, a pet dog or a cat is the only contact we have with the animal world. It was not so for our ancestors, who may have lived, as mine did, with horses, cows, mules and pigs, but it is so for us. Animals also soften our affect. I know that an entirely different part of me emerges when I hold the head of a friendly dog, or pet the back of an eager hound. I believe that I am more human when I am with an animal. A dog brings out the best in me.

For these reasons, the way it draws people to the parish, for the way it meets human need, and for what animals give us, I am glad we have an animal blessing and will always continue it.

Some people ask why we do it when we do. Most churches, such as our cathedral church, do it in the fall on or near the Feast of St. Francis. Which is a perfectly fine idea. But this parish decided years ago to do it on Rogation Sunday, which is the Sixth Sunday of Eastertide. In medieval English tradition, that was the day when the clergy made a procession around the parish blessing crops and fields and animals, to ensure a generous and productive harvest and thus, to sustain and renew life. The event here in New York’s Greenwich Village still renews life, just in a tamer and
more domesticated way.

Faithfully,


The Rev’d Lloyd Prator
Rector