Prayers For Hunted Animals

(reproduced courtesy of CPHA)

The British anti-hunting group "Campaigning to Protect Hunted Animals" (CPHA) this week released prayers for hunted animals to be used by churches on World Day for Animals, 4 October (which is also St Francis Day), as part of its ongoing campaign to ban hunting with dogs.

This year, Animal Welfare Sunday will be held on 5 October when many churches hold special services for animal welfare, and it is expected that they will include these prayers specifically for hunted animals.

"Christians need to focus on the suffering they inflict upon fellow creatures", said the Revd Professor Andrew Linzey, the Oxford theologian who has written the prayers.

"These prayers help us to celebrate God’s other creatures and repent of the harm we inflict upon them ? I don’t think our power over them gives us any right to inflict suffering", he said.

Professor Linzey wrote the first Order of Service for Animal Welfare for the RSPCA in 1975, and is author of the book, Animal Rites: Liturgies of Animal Care (SCM Press, 1999), which aroused lively controversy about the theological status of animals.

The prayers are intended to help galvanize Christian support for the anti-hunting cause at a time when the Hunting Bill - which aims to ban fox hunting in England and Wales - is being debated in Britain’s House of Lords.

"Many Christians are hoping that the bishops in the Lords will provide a moral lead", said Professor Linzey, who believes that Christian moral thinking has been too parochial in its emphasis upon human beings rather than the welfare of all creation.

CPHA is inviting Christians, both individually and collectively, to use the prayers to deepen sensitivity to the sufferings of animals.

For more information about the prayers, contact Professor Linzey on 01865 201565 or andrewlinzey@aol.com.

More details about CPHA can be found at:
http://www.ifaw.org/ifaw/general/default.aspx?oid=12400

© 2003 Animal News Center, Inc.