I have been an Anglican for fifty years. I love the church and am interested in the Dream the Church 2019 initiative.
I would love to see The Anglican Church of Canada with an organization similar to the UK based Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals. Like them, our Canadian Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals (CASWA) should raise awareness of animal welfare issues within the Anglican Church and the wider Christian community and come up with appropriate responses to those issues.
Many people shun the idea of a Christian animal welfare organization because they fear controversy or they think the church has no business helping non-humans. These views have not always been the case among Christians. British Anglican priest, Revd Arthur Broome, founded the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals and well known Christians such as C S Lewis, John Wesley and William Wilberforce all spoke out against animal cruelty.
Today we know that animals are sentient beings. They feel fear and pain. They suffer. Intensive farming, the food chain, experimentation, diseases associated with animals, the ill treatment of domestic pets and the killing of animals for pleasure raise ethical questions that the church should have answers for.
Animals as part of creation are involved in issues that should be on the church’s agenda. In addition, as Anglicans, we should be able to include prayers for animals and for creation in our liturgies. If we had an organization like the British Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals, it could lead and guide us as one body on those issues.
I know many of my animal loving friends, as well as the media, see the church as being anti-animal. (I even got a nasty letter from David Suzuki to that effect when I wrote to him about a creation/animal workshop during the time I was public relations director from the Canadian Christian Festival in Halifax in 1989/90!) They think Christians believe God has told us to exploit animals and care only for humans. We can change this perception and help our fellow members of creation by including an organization such as CASWA in our Vision 2019.
Janice K.
