Church has gone to the dogs!
The Unfinished Church in St George’s was filled with the sounds of hymns — and barking — on Sunday as owners brought their dogs to be blessed by an Anglican priest.Reverend Tom Slawson, of St Peter’s Church in the Olde Towne, said the annual blessing has become a popular part of the Anglican Church calendar.He said: “We always do it near St Francis Day on October 4. St Francis had a love of creation and nature which includes animals and, in the present day, pets.“The first year I was here we had 20 to 25 animals to be blessed, but we were rained out last year and we had some rain the year before as well.Mr Slawson added: “It’s almost always dogs. Even before I came to Bermuda, it was almost always dogs, but there have been the occasional odd ball ones like a guinea pig.”Donations for the Bermuda Society for the Prevention of Animals were collected during the service, conducted by Mr Slawson and Reverend John Stow of the Anglican Cathedral in Hamilton.