Services

 

Here is material for you to adapt as you wish. It is laid out for easy transfer into an 8-page (A5) service booklet. It is a typical service that can be used in a Catholic (or any other denomination) church for an ecumenical congregation. It is based on one of the annual animal blessing services held on the Sunday afternoon nearest to the feast of St Francis of Assisi (October 4th), in the Catholic parish church of St John Vianney, Wantage, Oxfordshire, England. The parish priest, Canon Peter Turbitt, presides and an invited speaker delivers an address. Animals present usually include dogs, cats, chickens, snakes, hamsters, stick-insects, and a rescued donkey, which leads the entry procession.

 

Preparation: select readers, rehearse the music (other suitable hymns may be chosen – see Hymns and Songs page) , and before the service begins, provide each child present with a picture of an animal on card.

 

 

(details of place, date and time; names of presider and speaker, also picture or sketch)

 

 

 

Please stand for entry procession…

 

Come, let us join our cheerful songs (tune: Nativity)

 

Come let us join our cheerful songs

With creatures round thy throne

Ten thousand, thousand are their forms

But all their joys are one.

Happy the creatures of this earth

Who live in peace and joy

Help human kind to know their worth

To value, not destroy.

Let us remember Lord that you

Have given us love to share

With creatures of this planet Earth

The common and the rare.

Every sparrow, every being

Make this a special world

We must continue, always seeing

This universe as pearled.

Let us not mock the daily toil

Of creatures great and small

We have no right this earth to spoil

But love and cherish all.

 

(Words by Wanda Oberman)

 

 

 

Please remain standing…

 

 

Presider: How wonderful are the works of your hands. The heavens declare your glory, O Lord, the arch of sky displays your handiwork We give you thanks, 0 Lord our God, for all your wonderful creation.

All: We praise you, we thank you, we glorify you, Lord God, creator and sustainer of all.

 

Presider: Father, creator God, help us to follow the example of St Francis of Assisi who showed love for all his fellow creatures and taught us to call them our brothers and sisters.

All: We praise you O Lord and Father of all living creatures, may we never forget our kinship with all you have created.

 

Please sit… 

 

 

Genesis 1:20-31

The story of God's creation

 

 

 

Please stand…

 

 

For the beauty of the earth (tune: Englands Lane)

 

For the beauty of the earth

For the beauty of the skies

For all creatures on the earth

Let us see them with loving eyes

 

Christ our God to we raise

This our joyful song of praise

 

For the mighty ocean swell

For the fish that therein do dwell

For the beasts that we do harn

Lord protect them with your arm

 

Christ our God to we raise

This our joyful song of praise

 

We must remember to be kind

To all creatures where’er we find.

Teach us respect for living things

Lions that roar and birds with wings

 

Christ our God to we raise

This our joyful song of praise

 

For all creatures great and small

For the spring and for the fall

For the wildlife of this earth

All are valued for their own true worth

 

Christ our God to we raise

This our joyful song of praise

 

(words by Wanda Oberman)

 

Please sit… 

 

Speaker: …………………

 

 

 

Remain seated for the Litany… 

 

 

Leading person: God our Father, have mercy on us and all your creation  

All: Hear our prayer

 

Leading person: From indifference to the suffering of animals at the hands of people throughout the world  

All: Lord save us

 

Leading person: From the heartless use and abuse of animals for our own pleasure.   

All: Lord save us

 

Leading person: From thoughtlessness or neglect to the needs of your creatures.  

All: Lord save us

 

Leading person: From the use of angry words and rough and cruel treatment  

All: Lord save us

 

Leading person: From lack of courage in speaking out against cruelty and wrong doings.  

All: Lord save us

 

Leading person: From turning a blind eye to the cruelties of factory farming, animal experiments and long distance animal transports 

All: Lord save us

 

Leading person: Grant that sports and entertainment involving the torture and death of animals will cease.  

All: Lord hear our prayer

 

Leading person: Grant that the use of cruel traps and the abuse and exploitation of wild animals may end.  

All: Lord hear our prayer

 

Leading person: May all farm animals be treated with care and compassion throughout their short lives.  

All: Lord hear our prayer

 

Leading person: Let all working animals be treated kindly according to their needs.  

All: Lord hear our prayer

 

Leading person: May zoos and circuses allow animals the freedom to express their own nature.  

All: Lord hear our prayer

All: May we respect all your creation. Lord hear our prayer

 

 

 

Please stand…

 

 

Creator on high (tune: Hanover)

 

Creator on high, we sing to your praise;

You moulded all life, in countless wise ways.

You made every creature for land, sea, and air;

To all human kind you entrusted their care.

 

Our Saviour paid heed to all living things;

The animals’ friend, yet true King of Kings.

He needed a donkey for humble display,

And showed His concern for the sheep gone astray.

 

O God of all life, may animals know,

His work for their good; help friendship to grow.

The eyes of all creatures look upward to you;

Lord make us your agents in all we can do.

 

The pets that we keep, the beasts on the farm,

You wish us to tend, and keep them from harm,

Lord reverence for life may we learn from above;

So bind us, with nature, together in love.

 

(words by Revd Mark Bishop)  

 

Please sit…

 

 

Children to hold up their animal pictures during these prayers, and think of the animals. Or the Presider may first invite the children to the front to show him their pictures and talk about them. There follow prayers based on local animal welfare issues. After each prayer…

 

Presider or Reader: Lord in your mercy 

All: Hear our prayer

 

 

 

 

All stand and say together…

 

All: O Lord, teach me to look at all I see around me as your creation. Let me never forget that you are the same God Who made me and the whole world and all the animals in it. Give me the grace to love all your creatures for your sake, And all people for the sake of my Lord and Saviour, Who has redeemed me on the cross. Amen.

 

(adapted from Blessed John Henry Newman)

 

 

Presider: You are invited to bring your animals up to the altar for the blessing, or you may wish to bring a photo or other memento. Please join us after the service for carrots, dog biscuits and tea in the church hall. The retiring collection will be for …