Service celebrates joy that animals bring
Inverness Church event dedicated to people and their pets
Published:
AN INVERNESS church celebrated the joys of our animal friends yesterday with a service dedicated to people and their pets.
Ness Bank Church held the special service in the amphitheatre on the Ness Islands.
Around 40 people attended, bringing with them their furry friends, including two guinea pigs and around 10 working and retired guide dogs, and Pets as Therapy dogs. The congregation, accompanied by accordionist Jim Moffat, enjoyed appropriate hymns, prayers and scriptural readings, and pithy quotations from the Rev John Chambers.
He told his flock: “The reason why dogs have more friends than humans is because they wag their tails instead of their tongues.”
Mr Chambers said: “We started the pets service around four years after a member of our congregation lost his wife, and said how much comfort he had derived from their pet dog.
“The service is about giving thanks for our animals and what we can learn from them.
“Jesus used the imagery of the good shepherd and there are many other references in the Bible to animals, as in Proverbs where it says good people take care of their animals but wicked people are cruel to theirs.
“My dog, Holly, a 10-year-old border collie, always comes along and seems to take it very seriously as the minister’s dog.
“People find the service quite moving. It redresses the balance between paying lip service to the importance of animals and actually doing something to celebrate them.”
