Mid-Week Meet-Up: Blessing of the Animals Service

Hi First Presbyterian Church,

It’s time for our Mid-Week Meet-Up! Our Homecoming has begun, and it was wonderful seeing so many of you in worship and at the picnic on Sunday! In two Sundays, our Homecoming concludes with a hymn-sing during worship at both services. You’ve submitted your favorite hymns and the staff are busy putting together a service structured around those hymns. It’s going to be a great time of worship!

Don’t forget that this Sunday is our blessing of the animals service. The 8:30am service will take place in the sanctuary as usual. Please do not bring your animals to the 8:30am. Your household animals are welcome and encouraged to participate in our 10:00am worship service, which will be held on our Church Street lawn. Bring your own chair to sit in. Please keep your animal(s) with you during the entire service. If you feel as though (for any reason) that you cannot bring your animals to worship, I encourage you to bring a photo of them instead. You will still be able to have your animals prayed for and blessed even if you only bring a photo.

There is a chance that it may rain on Sunday; although, at this point, the forecast shows comfortable and cloudy weather. In the event of inclement weather on Sunday morning, you will receive an email from me (on Saturday) indicating that the service will be moving inside the sanctuary. If the service does move into the sanctuary, I ask that everyone leave their animals at home and only bring a photo of them instead. If you do not receive an email from me on Saturday, please assume that the service will continue as planned outside.

I encourage everyone to come in-person to the outdoor service at 10:00am; however, if you cannot come in-person and will be worshiping online, please be prepared for a very different livestream experience. As we will need to livestream the service from outside, the quality of the livestream may be affected. I encourage anyone worshiping from home to find Sunday’s bulletin on the website (www.pittsfordpres.org/live) after it is posted on Friday and print it off for yourself, as this may make following the service easier for you.

I also want to remind you that, during Sunday's service, we will be offering a prayer of lament for all of our households who have recently lost pets. If you would like your animal remembered during this prayer of lament, you have until the end of TODAY to send the name of your animal and the name of their person to connect@pittsfordpres.org.

I am so happy to be “coming home” with so many of you. I can’t wait to meet your furry family members on Sunday!

From your brother in the family of God,

Pastor Aaron