Animal Chaplaincy

What is animal chaplaincy?

An animal chaplain provides caring support for animals and humans in navigating and honoring the joys, pains, and transitions in our entwined lives. Our tools include rituals, ceremonies, blessings, prayers, and loving, calm presence.

Loving a non-human animal inevitably involves grief, because their lives are, as a rule, so much shorter than ours. Last May, we had to euthanize our beloved greyhound Bran. That was after several weeks of slow decline, so at least we felt relatively prepared for our loss.

It had been a different story several years before, when our whippet Nigel (named after the character Nigel Tufnel, from the movie Spinal Tap, although he was much smarter than his namesake) suddenly developed a blood disease that could have caused him a great deal of pain at any time. This meant that we had to make a very quick decision. I really could’ve used the support of a chaplain in making that hard call. That memory stuck with me, which is why I decided to pursue ordination as an animal chaplain.

Like any chaplain, an animal chaplain offers pastoral care outside the confines of a congregation. But we expand our focus beyond human beings, to all beings. This might include offering a prayer and a moment of dignity for an animal who’s been killed on the road, memorializing the passing of a companion animal, or blessing the animals who, in turn, bless our lives daily.

For more information, see:

• https://www.compassionconsortium.org/

• https://www.uuam.org/

• https://www.findanimalchaplain.com/