Touch of divine back at New York church for animals

New York worshippers celebrated mass at St John the Divine Cathedral alongside hundreds of animals - including a camel, a pony, snakes, ostriches, geese, cats and dogs - which all queued up for blessings of their own.

The Manhattan Episcopal church invited its four-legged guests - or no-legged, in the case of snakes - to mark the feast of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of pets and animals.

The ceremony was a special milestone for the parish, which has not held a traditional first-weekend-of-October animal blessing since 2018, due to a fire and then the pandemic.

Animal-lovers of many faiths brought their furry friends to receive a little extra grace, including Jon Shweky, who is Jewish, and Christine Cookman, a Catholic. They brought their labrador, who is training to become a guide for the blind.

"It's such a spiritual and amazing thing to be involved with a church that recognizes the soul of animals," Cookman said.

Most of the critters did their best to quietly endure the mass, though some did become agitated when the camel processed down the aisle.

Also filling the pews were an alligator, an owl, bunnies, goats, a lemur and a duck - along with other species.