NEWS & EVENTS 

On Sunday 16th October, the congregation of St John's Bears Lagoon celebrated St Francis of Assisi, a man who loved all creation.                                                 


On Sunday 16th October, the congregation of St John's Bears Lagoon celebrated St Francis of Assisi, a man who loved all creation.

Accordingly we brought along our animals for a blessing.

Gwen Twigg was able to bring a box of recently hatched chicks, all nine of them in variegated colours.

The same family brought their kelpie sheep dog, a lovely animal who chases the chooks for sport but doesn't devour them.

Gemma, Ava and Kyen Maxted adored holding the fluffy chicks without squashing them.

Dogs were popular - two delightful little kelpie pups, Roger and Ruby, were brought along by Chloe Armstrong. Even the grownups vied for the opportunity to hold one of these pups.

George is a cockatoo that was rescued from the 2010 floods by Alex Mountjoy. George lives in a generous aviary in solitary splendour dressed in his mysteriously tattered plumage. He can speak but he did not deign to do so at his blessing.

Casper strained at his lead constantly, wanting to be free - his owner Nakeya asked for prayers because Casper needs to curb his desire to run away from home in search of adventure. A dog who wants to live dangerously.

Snowy, the budgerigar who doesn't talk, was presented by Amy for blessing for the third year in a row.

To set the scene for the animal blessings, Paula Maxted shared the story of "Sebastion who lives in a hat" about a rescued baby wombat.

Gwen shared Edward Lear's "The owl and the pussycat". Several people joined in this delightfully nonsensical recitation.

Rev Heather shared a silly story about a dog who was a family doctor: "Dr Dog" brought forth shrieks of laughter all round.

Of course we sang wonderfully appropriate hymns chosen for us by our organist Bill Cerrutty.

We went the whole hog with a poem from "Sister Madge's Book of Nuns" - Sister Isobel and the Zoo, where the class kind of disappeared one by one as they toured the zoo.

Finally, David Murray shared with us Kathy Hoopman's book about Aspergers: "All cats have Aspergers". This is a serious teaching book about the syndrome, presented in a sensitive and humorous manner.

Why such a smorgasbord? It might have something to do with Rev'd Heather's impending retirement and a shelf of ideas that called out to be included!