As some of you know from past blog posts, also here and here, I have been critical of Lutheran Church Charities Installation of their Comfort Dogs as “Ministers of the Gospel”.
Since we had the CEO of Lutheran Church Charities at our conference today to speak to us about Mercy, the second of President Harrison’s emphases for the church, I thought it would be a good chance for me to reconcile with Tillie the Comfort Dog.
Below there is a photo giving the right hand of fellowship to Tillie. Of course, right after that I couldn’t help but de-install her, so I spoke the installation liturgy backwards and did the sign of the cross backwards. Everything is now right in the world.
And here’s the audio of the reconciliation:
[podcast]https://steadfastlutherans.org/mp3/tillie.mp3[/podcast]
More serious, we are happy to report that Lutheran Church Charities does NOT endorse the installation of their dogs as “ministers”. Some congregations have taken the comfort dogs and done so.
Tim Hetzner is currently speaking to the Brothers and is doing a wonderful job of encouraging us to receive the Mercy of God and share it with those in need.