From World Magazine comes this bit of enlightening news…
Some might say Pilgrim Congregational Church in North Weymouth, Mass., is for the dogs. Speaking literally, they’d be right. On Oct. 5, the church began a weekly “woof ‘n’ worship” service devoted to dogs and their owners. Rev. Rachel Bickford said the idea comes from an invocation in Psalm 148: “Let all wild animals, creeping things and flying birds give God praise.” Bickford explained, “So I thought wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing to let all things praise God together and have families bring their dogs to church.” Bickford said parishioners who bring dogs to the 5 p.m. service will be responsible for cleaning up any messes created by pets.
Mike, what’s your opinion of that book: “Pagan Christianity” ?
I find the historical data interesting, but their conclusions are beyond every reasonable thought.
Yes, nothing helps tune my heart to worship like the howling of canines, dogs humping the pastors leg and the smell of dog poo wafting up to the heavenlies.
When we lived up near Petoskey, a local church had an annual “blessing of the sleds” to pray over snowmobiles.
We visited some of the old Dutch Reformed Churches when we were in the Netherlands…They had a place to “hitch your dog” for service. We got to actually see those box-pews… Europe has such wonderful religious architecture.
“The modern pew was introduced in the fourteenth century, though it was not commonly found in churches until the fifteenth century. At that time, wooden benches supplanted the stone seats. By the eighteenth century, box pews became popular.
Box pews have a comical history. They were furnished with cushioned seats, carpets, and other accessories. They were sold to families and considered private property. Box-pew owners set out to make them as comfortable as possible.
Some decorated them with curtains, cushions, padded arm-chairs, fireplaces—EVEN SPECIAL COMPARTMENTS FOR PET DOGS.”
-Pagan Christianity p.35
Guess there may be nothing new under the sun after all. Wow.