A fill in priest at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Toronto has outraged many by doing the unthinkable, administering the Holy sacrament of Communion...to a dog.

The incident occurred in June when Rev. Marguerite Rea was administering communion to the congregation which included a man who had been sitting on the church steps for weeks prior to the incident. When the man, Donald Keith, went forward in the church to receive communion his dog accompanied him. This was not a problem until the Rev. Rea also administered the Holy Sacrament to the dog as well. While some of the congregation did not seem to mind, the blatant display of sacrilege offended others and has many outraged at her actions. 

The local Bishop, Patrick Yu, responded to the complaints about Rea's actions and stated that he understood why people were so upset by these outrageous actions and that he thought perhaps her behavior was from some sort of woefully misguided attempt to welcome a new member into the church. Rev. Marguerite Rea has since issued a formal apology to the congregation during a Sunday sermon but has as of yet been unwilling to discuss the matter any further; however, is her mere apology enough or is further disciplinary action in order for a member of the clergy who has so disrespectfully violated the canon of the church and disgraced the holiness of the sacrament in such a blatant and careless manner? 

Some have tried to turn this into an animal rights issue, which it is not. The fact that animals do indeed have a soul is clearly stated in the Bible and the Anglican Church itself has a history of blessing animals so the dog's presence is not an issue. What is at issue is that a priest of the church would violate both the church's law and any resemblance of common sense in the fashion that she has done. After all, how can a member of the clergy lead a congregation in the ways and rites of the church if she herself is either completely unaware of those teachings or has such little disregard for the Holy Sacraments that she would desecrate them in such a fashion?

While the local bishop seems to be willing to let the incident go with the apology, the issue is causing a bit of a rift in the church as a whole which has already seen a growing divide over extreme liberal views that are rewriting or disregarding long standing church policies and St. Peter's has already lost at least one parishioner over this shocking incident.