The choir at All Saints Episcopal Church in Lehighton sounded more like play time at the local SPCA on Sunday afternoon.

Around 10 dogs and their owners turned out for the church's annual "Blessing of the Pets."The Rev. Jane Arrington Bender blessed each dog individually and the roughly 35-minute ceremony, held outside the church on North Second Street, concluded with the reading of the Prayer of St. Francis."Every year, we hold this ceremony in honor of St. Francis," Bender said. "We have done the blessing every year in the six years I have been with the church. St. Francis was a man of peace and in this time of turmoil, we need more role models who are peacemakers."Blessing of the Pets is held nationwide each year around Oct. 4, which is also the Feast Day of St. Francis Assisi.St. Francis, the patron saint of animals and the environment, began blessing animals between 1210 and 1215.Around this time, he penned a Canticle of the Creatures, a prayer celebrating all things created by God.It is also believed St. Francis preached to birds and blessed fish, before releasing them back in the water.Many attendees on Sunday were bringing their pets for the first time."Our dog is a people dog and we wanted to come out and let him socialize," said Ron Carlson, who brought Pepper, his six-year-old Norwegian Elkhound. "This is a great opportunity for Pepper to be around other pets and have a great time."Similarly, Tammy Yanero of Lehighton never had Jasper, her one-and-a-half-year-old Schnauzer, blessed before Sunday. She called the event, "a great experience."The church has had as many as 30 pets blessed in a given year and it's not always just dogs.Cats, tortoises, hamsters, goldfish and even a pig have been past participants.In bigger cities, such as New York, elephants are also blessed."St. Francis had a lot of gifts including his gentleness and non-violence and we try to pass that on during our ceremony," Bender said.She also read from the creation story from the book of Genesis and said a prayer for all pets."It's a very casual event," Bender said, "but it definitely means a lot for the people who come out."With her concluding prayer, Bender said, "May God, who created the animals of this earth as a help to us, continue to protect and sustain us with the grace the Lord's blessing brings, now and forever."Over at Sacred Heart Parish in Palmerton, the Rev. William T. Campion blessed animals seeking the intercession of St. Francis, patron of animals, on Friday.Students from St. John Neumann Regional School, as well as many pets and their owners, assembled in ther parish parking lot adjacent to the church and school at Third Street and Lafayette Avenue.Reporter Terry Ahner contributed to this report.