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New dogma: Woof 'n Worship
By Gillian Flaccus |
November 17, 2009, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
WHEN the Rev Tom Eggebeen took over as interim pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles three years ago, he looked around and knew it needed a jump start.
Most of his worshippers, though devoted, were in their 60s, attendance had bottomed out and the once-vibrant church was fading as a community touchstone in its bustling neighborhood.
So Eggebeen came up with a hair-raising idea: He would turn God's house into a doghouse by offering a 30-minute service complete with individual doggie beds, canine prayers and an offering of dog treats.
He hopes it will reinvigorate the church's connection with the community, provide solace to elderly members and, possibly, attract new worshippers who are as crazy about God as they are about their four-legged friends.
Before the first Canines at Covenant service on November 1, Eggebeen said many Christians love their pets as much as human family members and grieve just as deeply when they suffer - but churches have been slow to recognize that as God's work.
"The Bible says of God only two things in terms of an 'is' - that God is light and God is love. And wherever there's love, there's God in some fashion," says Eggebeen, himself a dog lover. "And when we love a dog and a dog loves us, that's a part of God and God is a part of that. We honor that."
The weekly dog service at Covenant Presbyterian is part of a growing trend among churches nationwide to address the spirituality of pets and the deeply felt bonds that owners form with their animals.
Traditionally, conventional Christians believe that only humans have redeemable souls, says Laura Hobgood-Oster, a religion professor at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.
But a growing number of congregations from Massachusetts to Texas to California are challenging that assertion with regular pet blessings and pet-centric services, says Hobgood-Oster, who studies the role of animals in Christian tradition.
In a recent survey, she found more than 500 blessings for animals at churches nationwide. She has heard of a half-dozen congregations holding worship services with pets, including one in a Boston suburb called Woof 'n Worship.
"It's the changing family structure, where pets are really central and religious communities are starting to recognize that people need various kinds of rituals that include their pets," she says. "More and more people in mainline Christianity are considering them to have some kind of soul."
The pooches at Covenant Presbyterian weren't interested in dogma.
Animals big and small, from pit bulls to miniature Dachshunds to bichon frises, piled into the chapel to worship in an area outfitted for canine comfort with doggie beds, water bowls and a pile of irresistible biscuits in an offering bowl. There were a lot of humans too - about 30 - and three-quarters of them were new faces.
The service started with a riot of tail-sniffing, barking, whining and playful roughhousing.
But as Eggebeen stepped to the front and the piano struck up the hymn "GoD and DoG," one by one the pooches lay down, chins on paws, and listened.
At the offering, ushers stepped over tangled leashes and yawning canines to collect donations and hand out colorful doggie treats shaped like miniature bones.
Donna Lee Merz, a Presbyterian pastor at another Southern California church, stopped in with Gracie, her 14-month-old long-haired miniature Dachshund.
The puppy with ears soft as silk was overwhelmed by the other dogs and wriggled across the floor on her belly, quivering with excitement. But she calmed down when Merz held her in her lap.
"She knew it was a safe place and a good place to be, a place to be loved," Merz said, petting Gracie after the service. "I'll be back."
Most of his worshippers, though devoted, were in their 60s, attendance had bottomed out and the once-vibrant church was fading as a community touchstone in its bustling neighborhood.
So Eggebeen came up with a hair-raising idea: He would turn God's house into a doghouse by offering a 30-minute service complete with individual doggie beds, canine prayers and an offering of dog treats.
He hopes it will reinvigorate the church's connection with the community, provide solace to elderly members and, possibly, attract new worshippers who are as crazy about God as they are about their four-legged friends.
Before the first Canines at Covenant service on November 1, Eggebeen said many Christians love their pets as much as human family members and grieve just as deeply when they suffer - but churches have been slow to recognize that as God's work.
"The Bible says of God only two things in terms of an 'is' - that God is light and God is love. And wherever there's love, there's God in some fashion," says Eggebeen, himself a dog lover. "And when we love a dog and a dog loves us, that's a part of God and God is a part of that. We honor that."
The weekly dog service at Covenant Presbyterian is part of a growing trend among churches nationwide to address the spirituality of pets and the deeply felt bonds that owners form with their animals.
Traditionally, conventional Christians believe that only humans have redeemable souls, says Laura Hobgood-Oster, a religion professor at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.
But a growing number of congregations from Massachusetts to Texas to California are challenging that assertion with regular pet blessings and pet-centric services, says Hobgood-Oster, who studies the role of animals in Christian tradition.
In a recent survey, she found more than 500 blessings for animals at churches nationwide. She has heard of a half-dozen congregations holding worship services with pets, including one in a Boston suburb called Woof 'n Worship.
"It's the changing family structure, where pets are really central and religious communities are starting to recognize that people need various kinds of rituals that include their pets," she says. "More and more people in mainline Christianity are considering them to have some kind of soul."
The pooches at Covenant Presbyterian weren't interested in dogma.
Animals big and small, from pit bulls to miniature Dachshunds to bichon frises, piled into the chapel to worship in an area outfitted for canine comfort with doggie beds, water bowls and a pile of irresistible biscuits in an offering bowl. There were a lot of humans too - about 30 - and three-quarters of them were new faces.
The service started with a riot of tail-sniffing, barking, whining and playful roughhousing.
But as Eggebeen stepped to the front and the piano struck up the hymn "GoD and DoG," one by one the pooches lay down, chins on paws, and listened.
At the offering, ushers stepped over tangled leashes and yawning canines to collect donations and hand out colorful doggie treats shaped like miniature bones.
Donna Lee Merz, a Presbyterian pastor at another Southern California church, stopped in with Gracie, her 14-month-old long-haired miniature Dachshund.
The puppy with ears soft as silk was overwhelmed by the other dogs and wriggled across the floor on her belly, quivering with excitement. But she calmed down when Merz held her in her lap.
"She knew it was a safe place and a good place to be, a place to be loved," Merz said, petting Gracie after the service. "I'll be back."
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