Animal Sunday Liturgy
A suggested liturgy with notes for the leader.
Note. This is not a prescription but a suggestion. There may be too many hymns to sing. There are 3 ‘conversations and you may wish to delete one to make room for something else.
This liturgy does not deal with the 5th aim in the Leader’s notes; exploring what ‘good’ and ‘very good’ mean in the context of the Genesis 1 myth. Other listed aims are dealt with in a minor way, and the leader may change the emphases by using some of the other material in the resources provided. Various ‘Reflections’ can be inserted at appropriate places and other changes can be made to change the ‘flow’.
The Welcome and the first song set the tone of animals having a special place in our Earth home.
Welcome.
Leader. In this series of church services, The Season of Creation, we ponder on the cosmos, our Earth home, the wonders of nature, and ourselves. Today, we concentrate on animals that share our Earth home.
Welcome. Welcome to everybody. We stand before the Mystery of our animal saturated Earth home. In our time together we celebrate Animal Sunday. We pray that we will love our Earth home and also prize those who share it with us.
We sing together.
Non–human Mystery.
Tune To God be the Glory. TiS 147
With praise and elation we greet the Divine
In beauty around us we cannot define.
This Mystery is wondrous; it captures our soul;
I gives life much purpose; it make us feel whole.
Praise and sing; praise and sing
For the Earth is our home.
Praise and sing; praise and sing
For wherever we roam
We meet many creatures that run, swim and fly.
They call us to share as they laugh, sing and cry.
The pets we adore and the beasts that we fear
Are part of the Myst’ry we see and we hear.
And when we encounter some animal charm
We feel joy and pleasure in forest or farm.
Praise and sing; praise and sing
For the Earth is our home.
Praise and sing; praise and sing
For wherever we roam
We meet many creatures that run, swim and fly.
They demonstrate clearly a wealth we can’t buy.
The Life-force, abundant in movement and sound,
Brings balance, uniqueness, prompts species abound.
The Myst’ry of non-human life we adore
Declares all the splendour of its sacred core.
Praise and sing; praise and sing
For the Earth is our home.
Praise and sing; praise and sing
For wherever we roam
We meet many creatures. Amazing! We see
The Myst’ry incarnate in air, land and sea.
Leader.
For our service today, we accept the biological definition of an animal as any life-form that is not human or plant. Birds, insects and fish are all included.
Conversation about the numbers and variety of animals on the Earth.
Voice 1. When I look at animals, I often wonder how many dogs there are. We’ve had 2 for quite a while.
Voice2. There must be something going on between humans and dogs. You are in company with a lot of others; actually, about 500 million other pet-lovers have a dog or dogs. History tells us that we first had them as pets about 14,000 years ago. We estimate now that there are about 900 million dogs, world-wide, so a lot still live in the 'wild’.
I won’t give you all the information but that’s a start. Some estimates are from a few years ago and some researchers’ estimates are rather different. I suppose you realise that no one has ever made a count! Anyway, this is one set educated guesses.
Voice 1. Wow! That’s quite a few. (Short pause) One of my dogs is 4 years old. How long do you think he might live?
Voice 2. Well between about 8 and 12 more years, depending on the breed. I don’t think he will live to 29 years old, like an Australian Sheep Dog called Bluey did, a few years ago.
Voice 1. What about cats?
Voice 2. Generally, they have the much the same life span, but a few years ago, one cat in Texas, called Cream Puff, lived for 38 years. (Short pause) Our estimate now, is about 220 million cats are pets and about 480 million live in the wild or are stray cats. While we’re on the subject, you may be interested to know that there are well over 200 breeds of dogs but only about 70 breeds of cats.
Voice 1. That’s interesting, but I don’t know what our children would do without our dogs. They are all such good friends. The dogs are part of the family. They cost a bit to keep these days with all the vaccinations and pills for this and that, but they bring us such joy. They are always glad to see us when we come home. Their tails way like anything. We wouldn’t be without them.
Note. People performing the voices remain out the front of the church for the continued conversation later.
Children’s game. Charades.
Note. Allow about 6 minutes or so. Firstly, introduce the game and explain it briefly. The leader, or someone from the congregation who has been asked previously, and who has prepared, mimics different animals. When doing the charade, the question asked is, “What am I?” If the children can’t guess correctly, ask the congregation. After having done 4 or 5, the leader might ask the children or anybody else if they want to do a charade. If no volunteers come forward, then a couple more should be performed.
Suggestions. You may think of others.
Waving extended arms up and down - a bird.
Laughing and flapping arms - a Kookaburra, having arms bent at elbows.
Down on all fours and make a snorting sound - a pig.
Down on all fours and make a moo sound - a cow.
While sitting on the floor, hold one arm high and point the hand forward, while making a hissing sound - a snake.
While having both arms close to your body and bent at elbows, point your hands forward and then jump a few long jumps with both feet together - a kangaroo.
Wag your hands which are touching your head above your ears on both sides - a rabbit.
Pretend you are doing breaststroke - a fish.
While reclining on the floor, make a roaring sound while pushing your head high - a lion.
We sing together.
God -The life force.
St.Gertude ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ Presbyterian hymnary 535 Methodist Hymnbook 822.
Speeding with the stallion, swarming with the bees,
Swooping with the monkeys, swinging through the trees.
Placid with koalas; raging with the bull; -
We watch nature’s movements. Life is wonderful.
God is ever present with us; here for all to see;
Sacred is this Life-Force – Vibrant mystery!
Resting with the lions as they sleep and dream,
Struggling with the salmon as they swim up stream,
Twisting with the earthworms, living underground; -
We watch nature’s movements, listen to each sound.
God is ever present with us; here for all to see;
Sacred is this Life-Force – Vibrant mystery!
Flying with the eagles, work with all the ants,
Spinning webs with spiders, trudge with elephants;
Warring with the insects for a place to thrive; -
We watch nature’s movements; trying to survive.
God is ever present with us; here for all to see;
Sacred is this Life-Force – Vibrant mystery!
Conversation continued.
Voice 1. While I have got you here, I have often wondered just how many animals inhabit the Earth.
Voice 2. Since you asked. It’s my pet subject. I won’t give you all the information but here’s a start. Some estimates are from a few years ago and some researchers’ estimates are rather different. I suppose you realise that no one has ever made a count! Anyway, this is one set educated guesses.
Note. A special overhead slide of the numbers below, needs to be projected while Voice 2 is giving this information. If possible, all the information should be on only one slide. The numbers could also be created as a paper handout.
Ants Trillions! More than a hundred thousand for each
and every human!
Chickens 26 billion
Humans 7 billion
Sheep 1 billion
Cows 1 billion
Dogs 900 million
Pigs 700 million
Cats 500 million
Horses 60 million
And only ½ a million Elephants
Not counting humans, that all adds up to quite a few! If we counted all the fish and insects there would be billions more. I don’t suppose you know that there are more than 300,000 species of Beetles and 4,000 different species of Frogs! So, you see, the Earth is absolutely saturated - saturated with animal life.
Voice 1. That’s amazing! 300,000 different sorts of Beetles. God must love Beetles!
Voice 2. Well I suppose that’s one way of putting it. A more correct way of explaining it would be to say, ‘Because beetles live in such a wide variety of different environments, evolution and natural selection have brought all these species into being, over millions and millions of years.’
Note. People performing the voices remain out the front of the church for the continued conversation later.
Prayer. Leader.
We are privileged to be connected to all of nature on our Earth home, and especially to animals. We are thankful for their uniqueness, each contributing, in their special way, to the life of our living planet. There are so many, struggling to live and thrive. We are sorry for the way we humans, often threat animals with injustice, abuse, and sometimes even contempt. We are sorry that some humans cause much pain and unnecessary suffering on animals and rob them of their natural habitat, for purely commercial reasons. We are thankful for groups such as the RSPCA, who work tirelessly for the prevention of animal cruelty by actively promoting their care and protection.
Congregation. We are thankful for the great profusion of animals, sharing our Earth home. By the way we live, we know we can contribute to their welfare. May we acknowledge that all life is an expression of the ‘Divine’ in our midst. We pray that, as forgiveness brings with it the challenge to act differently, may we become more sensitive to the tragic plight of many animals and be more concerned about their care and protection. We know we can sometimes do this, when making decisions about what we buy to eat. So we pray, Amen.
We sing together.
Animal Life on Earth.
Tune All things bright and beautiful TiS 135
Life has its own artistry.
Its pictures are so strong.
Life has its own melody.
It sings a sacred song.
All species in their millions,
Each have their home on Earth.
The animals in trillions
Are all of godly worth.
Life has its own artistry.
Its pictures are so strong.
Life has its own melody.
It sings a sacred song.
Some dogs and cats are family,
Some bunnies, birds and fish,
They sleep and eat in safety.
Pursue their every wish.
Life has its own artistry.
Its pictures are so strong.
Life has its own melody.
It sings a sacred song.
The stewardship of nature
It is our sacred task
To care for every creature -
They should not need to ask.
Life has its own artistry.
We wish to keep it strong.
Life has its own melody.
We need to sing along.
Creation prayer. Leader.
We are present to the Divine Mystery in all things, at all times. We are silent before the limitless Life-Force in all of nature; birds and beasts, in rocks and rivers, fish and flowers, bugs and beetles; and importantly, in us human beings; ‘In God we live and move and have our being’.
We stand in awe at the energy in lightning storms, in changing tides, in exploding and collapsing stars, in earthquakes and tornadoes, in every atom, in galaxies and black holes. We are thankful that we are part of this interdependent, mysterious reality, that we are connected to all that is, that we can contribute to the well-being of all that is around us. We are thankful we have been given this opportunity.
We learn from Jesus to love our neighbour as ourselves, and the Earth is our neighbour. We know that to love the Earth is to respect the fragile balances in Earth’s nature, is to refuse to exploit Earth’s resources just for the sake of wanting ‘more’, is to shun luxury, and is to give back to the Earth something in return for the Earth’s constant giving to us.
In our time, we recognise the climate change threat that our Earth home is under. May we act as a loving neighbour to it and by what we do and don’t do, work toward the benefit of life, empowering its potential, being humble enough to give it our loving service.
This we pray, in the name of the One who teaches us how to give. Amen.
Conversation about the ‘other’ side of Earth’s nature.
Voice 1. I don’t want to get you talking numbers anymore, but my neighbour has a cat, and I must say that my dogs don’t get on all that well with that cat. Is that normal?
Voice 2. ‘To fight like cats and dogs’ is quite a realistic saying. They are naturally antagonistic to each other but can be trained to tolerate each other, even to become friends; but that can take time.
Voice 1. Well, leaving cats and dogs for a moment. Is it normal for animals to hate other animals and always fight?
Voice 2. Oh Yes. But I wouldn’t use the word ‘hate’. ‘Wild’ is a good word to use for nature. Many animals in the ‘wild’ live all their lives in fear of being killed and eaten by other animals. Some, but not all birds, kill and eat other birds; they target particularly tiny offspring. Some frogs eat other frogs. Lots of insects kill and eat other insects. Insects are killed and eaten by a huge number of other animals. They are even trapped, killed and consumed by some plants. Some animals eat smaller animals, which in turn are killed and eaten by bigger animals. You’ve probably heard of ‘Food Chains’. Well, ‘Food Chains’ are defined by ‘Who eats who’. An example is: ‘A caterpillar eats some leaves. The caterpillar is killed and eaten by an insect. The insect is eaten by a frog. The frog is killed and eaten by a snake. The snake is killed and eaten by an eagle.’ That’s a simple food chain. Some food chains can mix together to form, what is called, a ‘Food Web’. A large number of animals are meat eaters. So where do they get their food? Other animals! There is no other source. That’s just the way nature works.
Voice 1. Well, I don’t think that’s very nice. It doesn’t sound ‘good’ to me.
Voice 2. I don’t think we can say that. Nature is not nasty or nice. Nature is nature, and we can’t judge animal behaviour by our human moral standards. Nature behaves the way nature does, and that’s it. It is governed by the processes of evolution, and all those processes are amoral. Nothing to do with what’s good or bad. (Short pause.) But nature works! And it has done so for millions of years. It provides us with all that we need to survive. It always has. Without nature we could not survive as a human race, so we should be profoundly thankful.
Voice 1. Well, I still don’t think it’s good!
Voice 2. I know what you’re saying, and I try not to think about it too much, (Getting a bit agitated) but I wish you wouldn’t keep saying “It’s not good”. Nature isn’t good or bad! Nature is nature! If we didn’t have the situation where some small animals are food for other animals, who are, in turn, food for bigger animals, there would be no balance in nature, and it just wouldn’t work. Human could not exist. We couldn’t exist!
I would just like to add one more thing. Evolution, over very long periods of time, and through the forces of ‘Natural Selection’, improve the defence mechanisms that victims use to survive. And they work quite well very often. The main one they use is speed; running, swimming, and flying as fast as they can, to get away from the danger. One of the strange defences is ‘playing dead’, in the hope of tricking the predator into thinking they are in fact, dead. Some predators don’t like eating dead animals; they might be deceased or be decaying. If they eat them, they might get very sick. So, one might say that evolution is sometimes on the side of the victims. But it’s not really that! Nature is not on any side! It just works to bring about balance; a balance between being killed and eaten and surviving.
Note. People performing the voices remain out the front of the church for the continued conversation later.
We sing together.
Nature's Harsh Harmony.
Tune Regent Square TiS 142,431,462
Contemplate all nature’s beauty,
And it’s ways that horrify.
Ponder on this vibrant mystery -
Growth from seeds that have to die.
Caterpillars’ deaths are needed
For the butterflies to fly.
Nature’s offspring need protection
As they struggle to survive;
And when grown, threat always hovers;
Yet they cope and even thrive.
Ponder on this constant Mystery
And Life’s bold, unbeaten drive.
Life, in tension, sings a chorus
Of a grim reality;
Life and Death are ever present –
Nature’s own harsh harmony.
Ponder on this restless Mystery
And Life’s untamed energy.
Death will never have dominion
Even though it has its place;
Life breeds life; is never conquered;
Life will always win the race;
Ponder on this sacred Mystery
Thankful for this gift of grace.
Conversation about eating meat. (Optional, like everything else in this liturgy.)
Voice 1. I don’t really want to keep talking about this side of nature, so let’s get back to our dogs and the cat next door. Maybe I should try harder to help them get on. I think this would be in line with those church services which concentrate on animals, people bringing them to church for them to be blessed.
Voice 2. Yes, I agree. I think those services are great. However, I must say (Short pause.) that I find it somewhat contradictory that, after such services, when we ask for a blessing on the animals we love, then most of us go home and, probably without thinking about it much, we become part of a humanity which requires 2 to 3 billion animals to be killed each day to satisfy our desire to eat meat. Chickens and fish are the main victims, but of course they are not the only ones.
Matthew 6:25-29.
Reader 1.
Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Isa not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like on of these.
Reflection. Leader. (Suggestion. Add or subtract as you wish.)
When consulting the gospel for today, we must be frank and recognise that animal welfare was not, according to the gospel records, a priority in the teachings of Jesus. However, this does not mean he was unconcerned. In our reading Jesus states that ‘your heavenly Father’ cares for plants and animals alike. In Matthew 10:29, another one of the very few places in the gospels where animals get a mention, Jesus identifies sparrows as animals, which are not valued by humans, but which God still knows and remembers. This could point to what Jesus may have thought generally about animals.
In broadening Jesus’ emphasis on being on the side of the down-trodden, those who have no power or voice, we can confidently say that Jesus would have tried to stop all types of injustice, eradicate all forms of cruelty, both physical, religious, and psychological, and reverse any lack of compassion, in all situations. Thus, his massage and challenge to us, would be to work for justice, kindness and compassion for animals, those who cannot speak up for themselves when they are treated badly.
We sing together.
Caring for non-human life.
Tune Londonderry Air Not in TiS
Methodist Hymnbook 809
Oh, when we think in depth on the reality
Of life emerging everywhere on earth,
We share the restlessness and rich vitality
With creatures in our home of noble birth.
Each bird and beast is part of the totality;
All share the pain, the struggle and the mirth
Of living here, each in its own locality;
Yet join to form a wondrous web of cosmic worth.
Non-human life is here for us to celebrate;
Not to destroy, abuse, degrade or wrong;
We can respect, we can do more than tolerate;
Protect the weak, give freedom to the strong.
Both tame and wild, life has a right to procreate;
For beasts to fight, for birds to sing their song;
Yet in this world we humans need to advocate
For justice for them in our world where they belong.
So let us honor life, its grace and sacredness;
See the Divine in everything around;
For life itself is that which charms with vividness,
This godly force in which we all are bound.
We can reverse the hurt and all the wretchedness
In which non-human life is often found;
To care for life in all its magic nakedness
Is to invest ourselves in love that is profound.
Offering,
Offering prayer. Leader.
As we offer our money to sustain the church and promote the Good News from Jesus, we also make a commitment to love our neighbour animals by the way we treat them, and by the decisions we make when buying the food we eat. In the name of him who showed us how to love each and every neighbour. Amen.
Prayers of the people.
Suggestion. People who may be included could be these whom inflict suffering on animals for commercial reasons; that they reconsider their activities. People in organisations listed in Background Reading who work for justice and kindness for animals, as well as those farmers who farm animals in the ‘natural’ way.
We sing together.
Animals are our friends.
Tune Laast Uns Erfreuen TiS 100
All creatures, sharing our Earth home,
Adding your beauty where you roam;
Alleluia. Alleluia.
We are so privileged to be
Neighbours of yours in land and sea.
We are thankful. We are thankful
Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.
Sending out.
Congregation. Let us go out with the peace and love of Jesus in our hearts and so love our Neighbours, the animals. Let us be sensitive to their well-being, conscious of their hurting, and determined to bring healing. Let us love them in what we do and refuse to do. So may we bring about God’s dream and our dream for our beloved Earth.
Leader. A Franciscan Blessing.
May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. Amen.
May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. Amen.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy. Amen.
May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world; so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
Go with peace, hope and love in our hearts. Live by the trust we have in Jesus. Amen.