( November 1977 - brief extracts):
"Regarding with all reverence the delicacy, the complexity and the
coherence of creation and preservation, I sometimes wonder, as I
look at the cat, the tiger, the ostrich, the giraffe, if it may not
be part of the eternal role of animals to help man to a deeper
understanding of the Trinity and of the nature of suffering and a
broader understanding of the purpose, love and even the humour of
him who knows all by name and for whom not a sparrow is forgotten."
Mr. O.W.H. Clark
As a countryman, I always have a great suspicion when a townsman
stands up and starts to tell us how to run our affairs. I am sure it
would be incorrect to say that this is what Mr. Clark is doing, but
there is a great danger of this Synod doing just that, pronouncing
on something which it does not understand.
. . . I appeal to the Synod to get its priorities right and to
consider whether it should spend time in a full-scale debate on
animal welfare when so much is pressing on its time and energies
which is much more pertinent to the furtherance of the Gospel of
Christ in this world.
Mr. J.D. Walker
Mr Walker has implied that it is surprising that the General
Synod should spend its time debating animal welfare when there are
many more vital issues facing the world and the Church, I find this
view quite unacceptable, because I believe that animal welfare is a
most proper subject for a Christian body to discuss, and it does not
matter whether members of the Synod come from the country or from
the town, because I believe that fundamentally this is a theological
issue, and that man's attitude to the animal kingdom . . . must be
based, and is based, upon certain theological principles.
. . . man is indeed the crown of God's creation, yet, as we all
know too well, man has abused his position and has exploited nature
for his own immediate gains and his transitory pleasures. He has not
seen that the authority that he possesses he exercises under God. As
C.S. Lewis pointed out many years ago, man was appointed by God to
have dominion over the beasts and everything a man does to an animal
is either a lawful exercise or a sacrilegious abuse of an authority
by divine right. In other words, I believe that our behaviour
towards the animal kingdom ought to display something of the
responsibility, the mercy and the kindness which God displays to us,
and as Austin Farrer once said, 'When our compassion moves us to
relieve animal suffering we are being used by the compassion of
God.'
Canon P.A. Welsby
From The Living World, No.17, 1978 - journal of the
Crusade Against All Cruelty to Animals.
