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FROM THE PULPIT
November - December 1996 Issue

St. Francis of Assisi (1220)

Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission: to be of service to them whenever they require it.

Clive Holland, at Westminster Abbey. ( 1987)

As Christians we believe that God gave us dominion over His Creation, but we have used that authority, not to protect and safeguard the natural world, but to destroy and pollute the environment. And even worse, we have deprived animals of the dignity and respect which is due to all that has life.

From a Report commissioned by the Church of England, Board of Social Responsibility. (1970)

We make animals work for us, carry us, amuse us and earn money for us. We also make them die for us in ways which would be rejected if we could readily see it done. In many fields, we use them not with gratitude and compassion, but with thoughtlessness, arrogance and complete selfishness.

AN INVOCATION

Henry Primatt, D.D.

Let me intreat thee , O Christian reader, by all that is good and kind and just; Let me intreat thee for God’s sake, for Christ’s sake, for man’s sake, for the sake of the animals— Yea, and for thine own sake.

Make it your business, esteem it your duty, believe it to be the ground of your hope and know that it is that which the Lord doth  require of thee:“ to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.”

See that no animal of any kind, whether entrusted to thy care, or coming across thy path, suffer through thy neglect or abuse.

Let no hope of profit, no compliance with custom, and no fear of the ridicule of the world, ever tempt thee to the least act of cruelty or injustice to any creature whatsoever.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

 

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