Animal blessing service held at St John's Church, Ben Rhydding

The regular service was held on Zoom this year due to the coronavirus pandemic and were delighted to welcome 24 households – across a wide age-range – bringing their animals to show and be prayed for.

Sylvia Walker, of St John’s, said: “We had dogs, cats, chickens and guinea pigs – and many of these were introduced personally and had their lovely coats admired! Prayers were offered for farmed animals and those in the wild, and we were reminded in our final blessing of our responsibility to care for all animals ranging across our earth. We were glad to have the company of Robbie Moore, our MP, who shared about an animal welfare issue he is currently working on in Parliament, involving legislating for heavier sentencing for animal-cruelty offenders. Doing things differently was rather fun, and meant that we could include cats and chickens, which might not have been too happy in our church building side-by-side with everything else!”