Worship has gone to the dogs
TRENDSService is part of a growing move to address spirituality of pets

BY GILLIAN FLACCUS Comments 0
Published: November 7, 2009

LOS ANGELES — When the Rev. Tom Eggebeen became interim pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church three years ago, it needed a jump start.

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Most of his worshippers, though devoted, were in their 60s, attendance had bottomed out, and the once-vibrant church was fading as a community touchstone

Eggebeen came up with a hair-raising idea: He would turn God’s house into a doghouse, offering a 30-minute service with doggie beds, canine prayers and an offering of dog treats. He hopes it will reinvigorate the church’s connection with the community, provide solace to elderly members and attract new worshippers.

Before the recent first Canines at Covenant service, Eggebeen said many Christians love their pets as much as human family members and grieve just as deeply when they suffer, but churches have been slow to recognize that love as the work of God.

"The Bible says of God only two things in terms of an ‘is’: that God is light and God is love. And wherever there’s love, there’s God in some fashion,” said Eggebeen, a dog lover. "And when we love a dog and a dog loves us, that’s a part of God, and God is a part of that. So we honor that.”

The weekly service at Covenant is part of a trend among churches nationwide to address the spirituality of pets and the deep bonds owners form with their pets.

Traditionally, conventional Christians believe only humans have redeemable souls, said Laura Hobgood-Oster, a religion professor at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. But a growing number of congregations are challenging that assertion with regular pet blessings and pet-centric services, said Hobgood-Oster, who studies the role of animals in Christian tradition.

She recently did a survey that found more than 500 blessings for animals at churches nationwide and has heard of a half-dozen congregations holding worship services such as Eggebeen’s.

"It’s the changing family structure, where pets are really central, and religious communities are starting to recognize that people need various kinds of rituals that include their pets,” she said. "More and more people in mainline Christianity are considering them to have some kind of soul.”

The pooches that showed up at Covenant Presbyterian on a recent Sunday didn’t seem very interested in dogma. Animals big and small piled into the church’s chapel to worship in an area outfitted for canine comfort. There were people, too — about 30 — and three-fourths of them were new faces.

The service started amid a riot of tail-sniffing, barking, whining and playful roughhousing. But as Eggebeen stepped to the front and the piano struck up the hymn "GoD and DoG,” one by one the pooches lay down, chins on paws, and listened. Eggebeen took prayer requests for Mr. Boobie (healing of the knees) and Hunter (had a stroke) and then called out the names of beloved pets past and present before launching into the Lord’s Prayer.

At the offering, ushers stepped over leashes and yawning canines to collect donations and hand out doggie treats.

Donna Lee Merz, a Presbyterian pastor at another California church, stopped in with Gracie, her 14-month-old long-haired miniature Dachshund. The puppy wriggled across the floor on her belly, quivering with excitement. She finally calmed down when Merz held her in her lap.

"She knew it was a safe place and a good place to be, a place to be loved,” Merz said after the service. "I’ll be back.”

Emma Sczesniak was lured to Covenant by the promise that she could worship with her black Lab, Midnight, and her wire-haired Dachshund-terrier mix, Marley.

"I don’t have any kids, so my pets have always been my children, so it does mean a lot,” she said of the dog-inclusive service. "I haven’t been to church in a long time, and this may push me into it. I’m getting older, and I’ve been thinking about those things again.”