Including Our Pets in Church

Across the country this week-end, many churches will be having services to bless pets. We do this ostensibly to celebrate the life of St. Francis, although there was so much more to St. Francis than his love of animals (more on that on his feast day on Oct. 4). Today, I'd like to think about pets and whether or not we should have a service to bless them.

I once attended a church that incorporated the pet blessing into the regular service, which meant that we all attended church with a variety of animals that day, and we were all inside the building. I confess to being nervous. What if some of those less-friendly animals got loose? What if someone in the church was deathly allergic to the hair of one of those animals? I was deeply distracted that day and relieved to get out of the sanctuary. Worship should not inspire those feelings.

Many churches do a separate service these days. That means that people with issues about animals can avoid the whole thing.   It's not only allergies--some people have deep fears about certain animals.

These pandemic years have showed us that some of the ways that we do church have excluded parts of our communities.  What do we say to people with disabilities when we don't livestream or when our livestream has no way of having subtitles?  How can we include people who don't have resources?  Should we expand our worship to include non-humans?

A good pastor could address some of these elements in a pet blessing service. A good pastor could remind us that as we care for our pets who are thoroughly dependent on us, we are called to care for the poor amongst us, many of whom are also thoroughly dependent on our generosity.  We could talk about care of creation.

Yes, a good pastor could make all kinds of connections so that a blessing of the pets service avoids insipidness. Let me rest in the hope that most pastors who incorporate pet blessings will take advantage of this opportunity.