A spill off the Washington coast in 1989 sparked the formation of the Ecology/Spirituality Group at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral was started in 1989 after a priest and some church members answered a call for help to clean oil-soaked birds.

The 230,000 gallon spill contaminated forty miles of U.S. coastline and up into Canada. As many as fifty-six thousand seabirds were destroyed. Bald eagles and other raptors which fed upon oiled carcasses were injured; herring spawning areas and crab/shellfish populations were contaminated. Riding back to Seattle with the other St. Mark's volunteers after cleaning the birds, one church member asked, "Why is it that our environment is spiritually important to so many of us, and yet we never hear of it at church?" The Rev. Carla Berkedal, one of the volunteers, was struck by these words. A few weeks later she initiated the Ecology/Spirituality Group at the Cathedral.

Recognizing the significant emotional impact that animals have on people and honoring God's love for all God's creatures, St. Mark's opens its doors each year to animals: cats, dogs, rabbits, hamsters, birds (even chickens), reptiles, and goldfish. On the annual Feast of St. Francis there is a Blessing of the Animals. This 2,000 member church sings hymns, joins in prayers, and hears choir music and sermons that encompass the larger community of life. Family pets are individually blessed at the end of the worship service. Holding their pets, children share in the blessing along with the animal and experience the Church's (and God's) love and respect for all creatures. Also remembered are the migratory birds who benefit from shade-grown coffee habitat and threatened salmon and Orca whales in Puget Sound. A booklet prepared by the Ecology/Spirituality Group, "Readings and Prayers for St. Francis Day," is available for reflection.

Blessing of the Animals at St. Mark's
Episcopal Church

In the 2002 St. Francis Day service, the Rev. Dr. Ann Holmes Redding's sermon ended with this thought: "Our Celebration of St. Francis is not for all animals. It is for those whom we have domesticated, our pets -- for the housebroken. But primarily it is for us humans. Yes, today we bless our animals, but every day they bless us. Our pets are sacramental reminders of all the animals with whom we share this home we call Earth. We two-legged creatures are the ones who are not housebroken in this context. We are the ones who are fouling our environment, smashing eco-systems, and generally using our human privileges to make a mess of things. We need to make confession and to be reconciled. We are the ones who need a blessing. I close with an invitation that we humans become house-trained, and through our pets become truly connected to all the wild-ones in our common home."

Though St. Mark's is a large congregation with many social justice programs and over a hundred ministry groups, the Ecology/Spirituality Group assures that eco-justice is among the Church's work and witness. The Cathedral has many additional aspects of eco-justice ministry in its life. It has included creation care in its Strategic Plan, hosted clean-ups and restoration work in the adjoining Greenbelt, offered adult education classes, switched to serving Fair Trade, shade grown, organic coffee, implemented energy efficient changes in its buildings, and created a "Blessing of the Gardens and Grounds" on Rogation Sunday -- the sixth Sunday after Easter.