Aberdeen’s ‘Annual Animal Blessing Service’ Welcomes You
Between 1984 – 89, I had the honour to be the Diocesan Hospital
Chaplain, and to be based at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. What a
privilege to minister to humans of all backgrounds there! Yes, from a
Colonel who saw me on TV blessing animals (and as a consequence was
the first to call me The Animal Padre!); to a humble oil rig worker -
a victim of the Piper Alpha disaster – for whom the surgeons fighting
for his life said: “He can go either way. It’s now over to you padre!”
Yes a man with horrific burns who was led to say “The Man above has
saved me for a purpose. I think I know the Lord’s Prayer. Will you
kneel and help me to say it Sir!”
But of far more relevance, I
remember being asked by the wife of the University’s Vice Chancellor:
Myrna Forrester, to conduct an animal blessing service in the
delightful Scottish Church she attended. I agreed; and though I left
that lovely Granite City in 1989, the service we started through her
dedication for the animals has been continued as an annual event.
The date for it this year is the 9th of June at 3pm, and
Cragiebuckler Parish Church, is situated on Springfield Road. All are
most welcome: especially any who bring along a pet! Genteel folk
such as the organiser Myrna, command true respect for our movement.
Would to God that it had drawn far more of her kind! How much
more progress we would have made!
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