Feast of St Francis is a blessing for animals
Prayers, pets and pony tale
Animal Welfare Sunday at St Michael’s Church, Llanfihangel Crucorney, was marked by a well-attended Pets’ Service. As such a service seemed to belong in fictitious programmes like the Vicar of Dibley, no-one quite knew what to expect. In the event, local pet owners of all ages turned up.
The pets - which included a pony, two guinea pigs, a cat, a rabbit and many dogs - proved to be very well behaved indeed.
The idea for the service came from Sian Lloyd, one of the congregation at St Michael's, who is a very active member of the Society for The Welfare of Horses and Ponies. Sebastian, a miniature Shetland pony, had been rescued from a garden by the Society and had already been counting his blessings since the day he was rescued from a life of neglect. He came along to join the pets being blessed by the Vicar and Parish Deacon.
The congregation and the pets enjoyed refreshments after the service.
The members of St Michael's were delighted by the reponse of pet owners of all ages. It is unlikely that such an unusual service has ever taken place before at St Michael’s but don’t be surprised if it is repeated.
Richard Davies
Paws for thought at Mynyddislwyn!
To celebrate the feast of St Francis of Assisi, the benefice of Mynyddislwyn held a ‘blessing of animals’ service at St Tudor’s church. Horses from a nearby farm were blessed outside in the churchyard, and Rogerstone-based Greyhound Welfare brought along a number of rescue greyhounds. Barbara Gardener from Newbridge who volunteers for the charity said, “The service was quite lovely”. Apart from the odd growl, bark and miaow, the animals behaved themselves and some scuttled around the church and under chairs on leads held by their child owners. There was only one slight mishap – when the greyhounds arrived, the friendly rabbit was quickly led back to his cage!
Fr John Humphries