An Anglican cathedral held a memorial service for a cat during the pandemic. What do you think?

  • Thread starter Thread starter scousekiwi
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Well I know the sacraments aren’t involved but haven’t all public prayer gatherings been banned? I just think it looks disheartening given the circumstances of 2020.
 
I thought the restrictions only started on 5 Nov and they had this cat service at the end of Oct. Also the government website says they can still have weddings and funerals with 30 people maximum, and there were only 30 people allowed at the cat service.

I’m additionally not sure how a service that a bishop has at one end of the country is affecting pastoral care of parishioners under another bishop in a distant part of the country. It would be like if the Archbishop of Baltimore complained about something the Archbishop of Boston was doing in his own diocese.
 
Last edited:
The Bishop of Burnley is a fine and much admired pastor to his people, but it may be that his pain at the current suffering of his flock caused him to react in a way that he would not normally have done. As to Doorkins, many worshippers at Southwark became very fond of her, and it is not surprising that they wanted to give thanks for her presence in their cathedral. All in all, not a business worth making a fuss over either way, IMHO.
 
i am sorry that I did not get to see Doorkins on my last visit to that area a few years back, just before the terrorist incident. I went past Southwark a number of times but did not think to stop in because it is Anglican and I didn’t realize it had a past as a Catholic cathedral. I’d have gone if I knew it had a cat. If I’m ever back in that area I will stop by and see her little grave.
 
Last edited:
I’m a big cat fan, and not much of a Covid restriction fan. This seems good! Good for the Southwark Cathedral!

🐱 🐈 🙀
 
Last edited:
@Tis_Bearself First, I was astonished to learn that news of Doorkins had spread so far. I assumed that this would be very much a London/UK story, so I am quite impressed that a number of US sources have picked up on it. As for the service, I agree that in principle there is absolutely no reason why we should not give thanks for animals, and it is probably something that we should all do more often. Furthermore, the cathedral had been holding regular services anyway (subject to the prevailing restrictions). I probably wouldn’t have given the bishop’s comments a moment’s consideration if it were not for the fact that he is very highly regarded, even among people who do not share his more traditional views. Perhaps he was going through a difficult time dealing with the pastoral implications of the more severe lockdown rules imposed on his area of the country. On balance, I’m probably on the side of the cathedral and its many supporters, but I’m not sure that I am going to completely dismiss the concerns of the minority who found it questionable to hold a more lavish service for a cat than had been afforded to many humans.

@TomH1 I am sorry to read about your own experience. A memorial service for a friend of mine was cancelled at the very beginning of the national lockdown. She actually died last year, and the funeral was for immediate family only, so I am guessing that at this point there simply won’t be a memorial event of any kind. This is why I am still in two minds as to what I think about this.
commenter said:
I don’t know the immediate situation with Covid in England. No exceptions should be made for the staff of the cathedral remembering anything.
Click to expand...
To be fair to the cathedral, it should be clarified that there is no question about the legality of what they did. It was all clearly well within both the letter and the spirit of the law. The only question was whether this was sensitive on a pastoral level under the present circumstances.
 
Dolphin said:
While human beings come first since they have souls and animals don’t, to deny or overlook the suffering of animals is cruel and unchristian.
Click to expand...
Well, the common opinion is that they have souls but not rational souls.
But we don’t know what animals feel, how bad or if they suffer, we cannot read their “minds”, though of course they obviously feel pain…it’s something interesting to think about. We Christians are indeed against animal cruelty, not that they have “rights” like people, but animal abuse is unChristian.
 
Last edited:
Tis_Bearself said:
If you’d ever seen an animal grieve when it loses another animal to whom it was close, you wouldn’t be saying such things.
Click to expand...
The thing is, what looks like grieving to people could be something else to an animal. I’m not saying this is likely the case, but we don’t have access to animal thought process. I get that if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck…
There are also different animal species; it’s not a broad generalization.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I went past Southwark a number of times but did not think to stop in because it is Anglican and I didn’t realize it had a past as a Catholic cathedral. I’d have gone if I knew it had a cat. If I’m ever back in that area I will stop by and see her little grave.
Click to expand...
At the very least, it was a Catholic church for over 400 years before the Reformation. I was always under the impression that it was founded in 606, because that’s what it says on the information panel on the southwest side of London Bridge, but seemingly there isn’t any actual evidence for that.

The cathedral also has at least two American connections that I can think of. The first is that John Harvard was baptised there. Members of Harvard University funded the reconstruction of the St John the Evangelist chapel, which was renamed the Harvard Chapel, and the US ambassador, Joseph Hodges Choate, a Harvard alumnus, donated a stained glass window by John La Farge, who also made the windows at Harvard’s Memorial Hall. The other connection which I know of is that the two head choristers are known as “Hammerstein chanters” in honour of Oscar Hammerstein II. The choristers wear the coat of arms of Columbia University on silver and enamel badges on pale blue ribbons.

If you have not already been there, it is worth visiting St George’s Cathedral, the Catholic cathedral for the Archdiocese of Southwark, which is located opposite the Imperial War Museum.
Tis_Bearself said:
I thought the restrictions only started on 5 Nov and they had this cat service at the end of Oct.
Click to expand...
Yes, this happened during the period when England was divided into three tiers. Much of the northwest of England was in tier 3, the highest tier, which imposed the harshest measures, whereas London started in tier 1 and was later moved into tier 2. This is not entirely irrelevant, because the system of tiers (and to some extent the system of local lockdowns over the summer) did cause a degree of hostility between different areas of the country. Areas that were placed in tier 3 felt that they were not afforded adequate support from the government as they were placed under the strictest lockdown conditions. It was also suggested that some areas with similar infection rates were spared the tier 3 measures because their MPs were Cabinet ministers. When the whole of England was experiencing the same measures, there was a sense that we were “all in this together”. However, the local lockdowns and three-tier system exposed vast disparities between different areas of the country.
 
@IanM @PickyPicky I’ve never met Philip North, but I certainly know people who know him, and I have only ever heard good things about him. I think it must say a lot both about the high regard in which he is held and about his personal integrity that he has consistently resisted promotion. He was first invited to become a bishop in 2012, but withdrew his acceptance. In 2017, he was offered promotion to become the diocesan bishop of Sheffield. Becoming a diocesan bishop at the age of 50, he would eventually have taken a seat in the House of Lords and would perhaps have been a potential archbishop. I wonder how many priests have turned down the chance to become a bishop. Probably a few. But I wonder how many priests have turned down the chance to become a bishop only to be asked again a few years later.
 
scousekiwi said:
At the very least, it was a Catholic church for over 400 years before the Reformation.
Click to expand...
Yes, and that just makes me sadder to look at it and many other old Anglican churches. It should be a Catholic Church today. It was stolen from us by those who rejected God’s Church and then spent centuries menacing my forebears until they finally left the country and went someplace where they could practice their Catholicism in peace. It takes a lot of mental effort for me to set that aside. A nice little cat definitely helps to build bridges.
 
Last edited:
There’s an interesting book called A History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland by a guy named William Cobbett. Sad, but interesting.
 
A bit weird,it’s wrong to raise an animal to human status no matter how affectionate we are of them .
If it were the Catholic Church I would be deeply concerned. Jesus didn’t die to save an animals soul we must remember .
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top