All creatures great and small welcomed during second harvest festival

THE Rev. Richard Bellinger has held his second harvest festival in St Tugual's Chapel – and this year the island's pets were invited as well.

We don't have many creatures in Herm, unless you individually count the cows, pheasants and wild bunnies. The number of household pets is very low and they are mainly owned by children.

With this in mind, the island school was a big part of the festival.

Mr Bellinger likes his services to be a bit different and the inclusion of animals makes things a little more fun.

Luckily, with the size of the tiny church, no one saw fit to attempt to bring a cow along. Although that would have been amusing, the rest of us would have barely fitted through the door.

But we did have guest appearances from Sweet Pea and Honey Bun, the two large island goats. They are generally well-behaved, although they can sometimes get a little excitable. So rather than have their presence disrupt the whole service, they instead had a little parade in the front door, through the main part of the church and out of the side door.

I think we can safely say that is the first time goats have attended the St Tugual's Sunday-morning service.

For the rest of the morning, Alex the guinea pig, Davey the rabbit, Sparkle the cat and Fluffy the chicken represented the furry and feathered of the island community and they did a very good and well-behaved job of it. The children brought their animals along and each child read a poem or prayer while displaying their animal artwork on the altar. They also recited a harvest prayer to give thanks.

There was a prayer of thanks for the past summer season in Herm, with offerings brought from all aspects of life on the island. There was a menu from the White House Hotel, a bottle of wine from the Mermaid Tavern, a rope from the Sea Horse, a book bag from the school, a postcard from the gift shops and a woven heart to represent the mothers and children.