Dog receives communion at Anglican parish
July 23, 2010
A dog has received communion at an Anglican parish in Toronto. Pets are permitted in the church.
“The minister welcomed me and said come up and take communion, and Trapper [the dog] came up with me and the minister gave him communion as well,” said Donald Keith, the dog’s owner. “Then he bent his head and said a little prayer.”
“I thought it was a nice way to welcome me into the church,” said Mr. Keith, a new member. “99.9% of the people in the church love Trapper, and the kids play with him.”
Following a parishioner’s complaint, the local Anglican bishop decided that Trapper would not receive communion again, though he will continue to be welcome at church.
Peggy Needham, the deputy people’s warden at the parish, told the Toronto Sun that the parish supported Mr. Keith.
“The backlash is from just one person. Something happened that won’t happen again. Something our interim priest did spontaneously,” she said.
“This person went to the top and e-mailed our bishop to make a fuss and change things,” she added. “But he misjudged our congregation.”
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Posted by: -
Jul. 25, 2010 3:41 PM ET USA
I bet the dog hasn't even been through RCIA yet.
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Posted by: extremeCatholic -
Jul. 24, 2010 4:41 PM ET USA
We believe that through the words and actions of a validly ordained priest ordinary bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Our Lord. The idea the there is a small-c communion between us and those parishioners is ludicrous. Notice the focus is entirely on the idea of "welcome", inclusion, and "fuss": the dog meriting a sharing in the symbol. So it would be interesting to know what, if anything Christ at St. Peter’s Anglican Church holds to be sacred and one dare not serve to a dog.
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Posted by: MatthewG -
Jul. 24, 2010 9:27 AM ET USA
Wow. Worse than throwing pearls before swine! Thank God it was not a Catholic church, so it was not the true Body of Christ (please God, don't let it have been a priest who was ordained in the Catholic church and later became Anglican...) Still, this is an offense against Our Lord that begs for reparation.
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Posted by: a son of Mary -
Jul. 24, 2010 1:53 AM ET USA
Appalling but perhaps emblematic of the sad state of the Anglican church today. At least the bishop put an end to this nonsense.
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Posted by: hartwood01 -
Jul. 23, 2010 9:08 PM ET USA
Who said a little prayer, Trapper or the minister? Just when you think you've heard everything....
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Posted by: stpetric -
Jul. 23, 2010 7:35 PM ET USA
I learned catholicism as an Anglican (and later came into the fullness of communion with the Catholic Church), and I retain a great love for the "Anglican patrimony". But what was once the lunatic fringe now controls all the organs of North American Anglicanism, and they're becoming impossible even to parody. It's ironic that the legacy of sober, orthodox Anglicanism will soon find its sole secure home to be in bosom of the Catholic Church!
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Posted by: Chestertonian -
Jul. 23, 2010 6:15 PM ET USA
Sounds like it's time for that "one person" to come home to the Catholic church, where he will truly receive the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord, and never wait upon the Lord along side someone's pet.
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Posted by: filioque -
Jul. 23, 2010 5:50 PM ET USA
This is only the natural consequence of belief in the Real Absence.
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Posted by: -
Jul. 23, 2010 5:17 PM ET USA
And this is being reported, why?
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Posted by: Justin8110 -
Jul. 23, 2010 4:41 PM ET USA
Thank God that the Anglicans do not have valid Holy Orders, thus no real consecrated Hosts exist for the dog to recieve. Even so, this is pretty shocking.
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Posted by: -
Jul. 23, 2010 10:05 AM ET USA
The scary thing here is that 'only' one person complained.
