Church to perform animal blessings

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The community is invited to bring their pets and animals to Hilo’s Episcopal Church of the Holy Apostles for the church’s annual Feast of St. Francis Animal Blessing Services at 7:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Oct. 11.

The community is invited to bring their pets and animals to Hilo’s Episcopal Church of the Holy Apostles for the church’s annual Feast of St. Francis Animal Blessing Services at 7:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Oct. 11.

“Pets show us unconditional love. The Feast of St. Francis gives us an opportunity to honor our pets and animals that give us comfort, satisfaction and peace,” said the Rev. Moki Hino, Church of the Holy Apostle rector.

“I love how incredibly open the Church of the Holy Apostles is to all people as well as to all animals,” said church member Kim Arakawa. “Not just cats and dogs, but goats, pigs, chickens, sheep and horses, too. If you can bring it, it’ll get blessed.”

Th event is free, however any money collected from the donated plate offerings from the animal blessing services will go to benefit the Rainbow Friends Animal Sanctuary. Rainbow Friends is a no-kill animal sanctuary, founded in 2001 by Mary Rose Krijgsman whose goal is to help alleviate the animal abandonment and overpopulation issues facing Hawaii Island.

Since 1903, the Episcopal Church of the Holy Apostles has been serving the Hilo community with open arms and a firm belief that all are welcome.

The church hopes members of the community will bring their house pets, their farm animals — and even their goldfish. The Episcopal Church of the Holy Apostles is located at 1407 Kapiolani St. For more information, call 935-5545.