There’s a delightful parish church in a small village near Holywell;
and just a few yards before it along the same lane of this house of God
there is an intensive rearing unit: a veritable animal Treblinka.. I was
delighted to be able to officiate at the Sunday morning service; yet I
had to be true to God. Consequently, my sermon was centered around our
need to protect the animal kingdom; that, but for the grace of God, we
could have been born one. Indeed, after the service several folk thanked
me for a side of Christianity they had never heard before. Another
remarked that he’d never known animals to be prayed for in church
before. These cultured country folk appeared most grateful, and
especially the children. But for their presence at a family service and
I might have publicly slated the animal breeding unit nearby! In a way,
I sometimes wish I had done, for I have never been invited back and the
opportunity may never return.
You know, these most courteous villagers actually had more innocent
blood on their hands – though they certainly didn’t know it – than the
past villagers in Dachau during the tyranny of the Third Reich. The fact
is, that for the latter to have spoken up against the concentration camp
would have resulted in their death. While these were living in a free
society, yet saying and doing nothing for the animals sorely exploited
in rearing sheds almost adjacent to their village church.
Go on to
Getting Accepted By Man Can Be One’s
Undoing
Return to Autumn 2005 Issue
Animal Padre's
