Margaret Torney with her cat waiting for her pet to be blessed

DOGS, cats and guinea pigs are welcome in church this weekend – as a new priest in Gospel Oak is inviting parishioners to bring their pets to be blessed.

“All well-behaved pets” are welcome, Reverend Canon James Elston, the new vicar of All Hallows in Savernake Road, said.

But if you’ve got an eight-legged friend or something that slithers, best leave those behind.

“My greatest fear is being presented with a python or tarantula but thankfully I haven’t had that yet,” he said.

The longest-serving member of the Old Hallows congregation, Margaret Torney, suggested the event, after she found a photo of her cat being blessed at the same church in 1969.

“We’re reviving a tradition of the past. Margaret still comes to church. She was brought up in the area, she’s lived here all her life. She found this photo and showed it to me when I first arrived the priest then was famous Father George Elcock,” he said.

The tradition honours Saint Francis of Assisi. On his saint’s day, October 4, animals were blessed because they were associated with creation.

“His prayer, The Canticle of Creation, talks about brother son and sister moons and all the creatures of the world so it’s kind of a canticle for our times really it talks about the world and created order about being precious,” Fr James added.

Fr James Elston blessing a dog called Maisie in the garden of St Paul’s Camden Square

Fr James blessed fluffy companions in his previous role at St Paul’s in Camden Square.

“I did it on a small scale,” he said. “It was only dogs and they were all quite well-behaved but there was a bit of rivalry between them. Each owner was invited to come forward with their pet and I said a short prayer to bless them individually by name.” But the weirdest animals Fr James has blessed were a horse and a pig.

He added: “When I used to work in St Pancras Church, I used to bless the animals in the Royal Veterinary College, maybe 10 years ago. They’ve got a chaplain there. I couldn’t believe going into that place, you wouldn’t expect them to be large animals there. They used to have pigs, horses and all sorts round the back.”

Fr James took over from Fr David Houlding, who was at the helm of the place of worship for 38 years, in April. He said he’s enjoying living close to nature and seeing the many dog walkers go up Parliament Hill every day.

“One of the big differences in this area is you do feel very much in the countryside,” he said. “With the Heath I notice the changes of the seasons. When you’re in Camden Town you don’t see that as much really.”

The blessing of animals starts at 11am on Saturday, October 5.

Elsewhere in Camden, a pet blessing will take place at St Mary’s in Primrose Hill for the first time on Sunday (Oct 6) from 2.30pm.