27 October 2011

The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Revd John Pritchard, is a patron of the Society, and two former bishops of Reading, Dominic Walker and Stephen Cottrell, are also associated with the Society at the national level. 

In the words of its mission statement, ASWA exists, “to promote within the Anglican Church and the wider human community thankful awareness of God’s animal creation and practical and prayerful concern for its wellbeing.” The local group exists to support this aim on the local level, and to provide opportunities for members of ASWA and other Christians who share a concern for animal welfare and wellbeing to meet and pray together.

The Oxford group will meet regularly throughout the year, with meetings held in different venues to enable access to people from across the diocese. The next meeting takes place in January in Goring. Some future meetings will include expert speakers in the areas of animal welfare, animal theology, and natural history. As it develops, the Oxford group hopes to be able to offer support to churches in the diocese that would like to include issues of animal welfare in Sunday services or study groups, or that may wish to host an animal blessing service.

Anyone who is interested in learning more about the group or who would like advice about including animal issues in worship is invited to contact the Revd Jennifer Brown ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or the Revd Dr Martin Henig ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ). For more information about ASWA, please visit www.aswa.org.uk.