In his book Goodbye, Friend, The Reverend Gary Kowalski very plainly presents the truth that our mourning for a lost companion animal is essentially the same as that felt by our loss of a fellow human relative or close friend.
The author shows the need for the Church to recognize bereavement for companion animals in the same way it recognizes bereavement over human loss and the need to stop denying the fact that animals have souls and spirits, just as we do. (And that the animals are much more innocent than we are!)
Through a series of short chapters, the author walks us through the mourning process of various individuals through whom we can relate our own losses and look forward with hope to seeing our lost companions again in heaven. Our feelings of loss are not unique, but universal among all people of compassion.
He concludes his book with ideas for creating a memorial service and inspirational readings from many faiths, past and present.
We strongly recommend Goodbye, Friend to all people with companion animals and, in particular, to our fellow clergy to help them properly minister to members of their congregations.
The Reverend Gary Kowalski is a Unitarian Universalist minister and author of The Souls of Animals, voted a "Reader's Favorite" by the Quality Paperback Book Club. Several of his homilies were also published in HarperCollins' Best Sermons series. A graduate of the Harvard Divinity School, he has served congregations in Kent, WA, and Burlington, VT.
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