Danvers, Mass. (AP) – A Massachusetts church is scheduled to launch a new monthly worship service – for dogs. Calvary Episcopal Church will offer later this month its first “Perfect Paws Pet Ministry” aimed at giving area pooches and their owners improved odds at getting canines into heaven. The Danvers church plans to hold the service on the third Sunday of every month, complete with communion for the humans and special blessings for pets. Dogs will get special treats.
Church officials said well-mannered, leashed dogs are invited. People can submit a paper prayer if their pets are sick, not good around other dogs or deceased. Prayers can also be offered for other types of pets.
Rev. Thea Keith-Lucas told The Salem News dogs will have a say during service because barking won’t be banned.
Pet blessing are perfectly acceptable, but certainly not as part of the service.
So do they have Sunday School for Fido?
Fido what did Noah build? bArk!
Where was St. Joan born: bArc!
While the service will be a Christian one, it is open to pet owners who attend other churches or belong to other faiths.
I draw the line at doggie ecumenism. This only leads to pet syncretism. It was bad enough the heresy that all dogs go to Heaven – surely started by a Cat to lead dogs astray by letting them think they were already one of the elect. Doggie predestination is a serious subject, though I don’t want to get in the mire of Calvinist double doggie predestination.
29 comments
Some days… Reading your blog just hurts so good… 🙂
Why I left the Episcopal Organization, Chapter 739… The saga continues.
Would those treats be Iams brand? You know, Iams the Good Shepherd…
“…aimed at giving area pooches and their owners improved odds at getting canines into heaven.”
“Church officials said well-mannered, leashed dogs are invited.”
Pelagianism for dogs.
“It was bad enough the heresy that all dogs go to Heaven – surely started by a Cat to lead dogs astray by letting them think they were already one of the elect. ”
Well, on that subject, Peter Kreeft once wrote that “cats are inherently evil” (for the record, he was joking). Leave it to the Episcopalians to come up with a new DOGma.
If they decide to “mark their territory”, will the dogs be considered Pisscopalians?
Finally, only well behaved dogs will be allowed to attend, didn’t Jesus come for the sinners?
One the surface this seems funny as the comments have shown but it is just another way that Christianity has become a mockery. I guarantee some of our fellow Catholics will see this and wonder why we shouldn’t have a Mass once a month for our pets. And I am willing to bet that some idiot priest will accomodate them. At my former parish right at the end of a Mass I saw a poddle pop its head up from a pew. I don’t know what the deal was but it was there. The priest at that church also brings his fido to Adoration and lets it run free to lick people and bark whenever the door opens. Good Lord, where is the common sense, especially with priests who should know better. When is the elevating of animals and the lowering of humans going to end? Am I the one who doesn’t get it?
Suffer the little puppies to come unto me, and forbid them not….
I think it’s more accurate to say that St. Joan was born in “b’Arc.”
Before attending, I would want to know more about their dogma.
I prefer the barque of Peter.
Your blog gives me paws. Ruff humor is OK too.
Have they thought through what might happen if a dyslexic monotheist was in attendance? How distressing it would be to see so many gods!
I might have a bone to pick with them about this!
the comments are too funny!
Perhaps weddings for your gay pets? Part of this is funny and part of this, as a person who has a sister in the Episcopal Church, is sad and frightening.
Dogs and cats living together? Can we expect interspecies blessings?
I have not blogged for months and God’s Angels have sent me here. Go Figure!
Well I was born in the year of the dog and proud of “IT” and some say that my b’ark is louder than my bite so that must count for something.
Who knows! Maybe there’s a spiritual blessing in that church somewhere for this “OLD DOG” also?
Hey! Who knows! It is said, nothing ventured, nothing gained and since Adam and Eve have been expelled from our heavenly guarden maybe the old dogs have taken over “IT” now? 🙂
God Bless,
Peace
Proof that the ECUSA has indeed gone to the dogs! Spayed and neutered dogs, of course!
I’m sorry, but this is one reason I fear I remain Protestant: I will believe that dogs, and cats, and the simple beasts we love, do go to Heaven via the Rainbow Bridge. All I can say is that is the creatures we Love, and who Love us in return, who are first granted that God-given right.
Who here would deny that a well-loved dog is not better behaved than most foolish humans?
And for all this this Presbyterian still believes in the Catholic Church…
Now who could possibly have turned this little comedy post into something serious?
Like the church lady of Saturday Night might have said, ‘Could “IT” be “Satan?” 🙁
Personally I believe that all good animals do eventually get to paradise and as a matter of spiritual fact, I also beleive that most of them are still there right now and if you don’t agree with me just ask one of Darwin’s spiritual cells. 🙂
Peace
So what happens when one of the dogs starts humping another in Service? Just thinking out loud here.
John you must stop thinking out loud cayse”IT” just ain’t proper peace!
I hear ya! Enough already sinner vic and don’t you know that the Eye comes before the He except after See!
Really!?
Which begs the question: do dogs suffer from the effects Original Sin? Did the Original Bowser and Bowsette eat from a forbidden bowl (or drink from the forbidden toilet?) If the after-life of dogs were something we’re to meditate on, and if K-9 Souls are to be the object of Evangelization, wouldn’t the Sola Scriptura crowd need to find that sentiment somewhere in the Bible?
Did, say James or Andrew ever bark up the Good News with the early Church/Pack in Dogtown?
Panda Rose, you know the Rainbow Bridge is a pagan belief, don’t you?
Don’t use that word!
Nan: That may be true, but I am not one who denies the selflessness a loving dog shows, the giving, the sheer open outpouring that all good Christians are asked to share. There is something so simple and basic in the affection of animals that’s not something to just ignore. Can you deny the innocence of animals, that they do not commit the willing sins of men? If nothing else, the dog seems to be the one animal willing to follow us willful sinful humans all along our wretched path. \
Beyond that I can say no more; I bow my head to the Church.
“Who here would deny that a well-loved dog is not better behaved than most foolish humans?”
So you’re saying that dogs are justified by works?
MissJean, what else can a dog offer?
If dogs and other animals are saved, the probability is that it will be as part of all Creation (which is notoriously “groaning” for salvation), and it will take place as part of the new heaven and new earth — ie, part of the Resurrection, Judgment Day, happily ever after package. So that would be after Heaven, most likely.
I guess “all dogs romp around on the New Earth” isn’t as snazzy a slogan. 🙂