Blessed pets

As we celebrate the Feast of St. Francis at a Morning Prayer service tomorrow, it seems timely to recall the following event that occurred earlier this year. 

"A Canadian priest's decision to give a mutt a communion wafer has some Christians panting with fury"  It seems that St. Peter's Anglican Church in Toronto, long known as an open and inclusive place, doesn't even turn away a dog at the communion altar.  "That’s how a blessed canine ended up receiving communion from interim priest Rev. Marguerite Rea during a morning service the last Sunday in June.  According to those in attendance at the historical church . . . in downtown Toronto, it was a spontaneous gesture, one intended to make both the dog and its owner – a first timer at the church — feel welcomed. But at least one parishioner saw the act as an affront to the rules and regulations of the Anglican Church. . . . "  The Week, July 29, 2010. 

While I am, as you know, a dog lover, I can see that this may have taken dog loving a little far, but creating a theological crisis over it does seem extreme.  After all, "all creatures great and small" are God's creations.  We announce each Sunday at my parish, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Lake of the Isles, that "All are Welcome at Christ's table."  Probably that will not come to mean "all creatures are welcome at Christ's table."