Blessing of the Animals Service Oct. 1 Outside Duke Chapel
The special worship service has commemorated the Feast Day of St. Francis since 1989
All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, Duke Chapel will bless them all.
Animals, whether they be adorned with fur, feathers or scales, and their owners of all faiths are invited to the 18th annual Blessing of the Animals service at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 1, on the front lawn of Duke Chapel.
The 20-minute service will feature performances by the Durham Children's Choir, readings and educational exhibits from local animal protection and welfare groups. Chapel Dean the Rev. Samuel Wells will offer the reflection. Individual blessings will be given to each creature following the service.
An outdoor worship service is held each year on the Sunday in October closest to the Feast Day of St. Francis, the 13th century Italian who believed that all creatures are from God and should be treated with dignity and respect. Similar gatherings will be held at churches across the country.
The Duke service became an annual event in 1989. Since then, Duke Chapel ministers have blessed a menagerie of pets, including horses, iguanas, snakes, ferrets, hedgehogs, calves, goats, sheep and goldfish, in addition to many cats and dogs.
Limited parking will be available in front of the chapel; trailers will be permitted in convenient spaces. Other parking will be in the Bryan Center surface lot, the Bryan Center parking deck and the Biological Sciences Building lot off Science Drive.
Chairs will be available for those who need them. Water and clean-up aids will be available for the animals, which should be under their owners' control at all times.
The rain date is 3 p.m. Oct. 8.