The Church of the Advent in Boston, Massachusetts, has been very proud of its cats for some years and there's a web page devoted to the more recent ones. Bradley we think was the first; he turned up in 2001 but died, after just a three-year tenure, in October 2004. He was clearly a cat who made a deep impression on the church community; there are pictures of him and of his burial service at this page.

The next holders of the post were Jeoffry, all black, and Jake, black and white; they were two 'big boys', weighing in at 16 and 19 pounds respectively (7.3 and 8.6 kilos). The reason given for taking on two incumbents at the time was that 'no one cat could ever replace the incomparable Bradley', and anyway they came as a pair when their previous owner could no longer care for them. Jeoffry and Jake were obviously 'into' most aspects of church life; as can be seen from photos that now serve to remember them by; we reproduce a few of them below. As to the matter of 'what church cats do' — well, as you can see from a couple of the images, Jeoffry and Jake did sometimes like to participate in church functions. We are also referred to Christopher Smart's eighteenth-century poem Jubilate Agno, in which he praises his cat Jeoffry (hence the name). You can find the poem, or the relevant part of it, here.

Sadly, the two 'boys' died within a month or so of each other in the spring of 2012. The intention was to wait until the autumn before taking on any more cats at the actual church — but in July 2012 Simon turned up looking for a home! He's a youngster and still 'learning the ropes', but is already making himself very much at home. There are some good photos here, and on the same page are the ones mentioned above of his predecessors. We hope Simon will have a long and happy stay at the church; he has already made many friends!

Two further cats have been living at the Rectory. Lucy is a pretty tortoiseshell-and-white female (right), while tabby Max (left), a later arrival, sought shelter following a snowstorm and took up residence.

The photographs, along with many more of cats and other animals, are the work of Julianne Turé, webmaster and 'official cat photographer' to the Church of the Advent. We're grateful to her for permission to use them here.

First United Methodist Church

Victoria, Texas, USA

The church's website reports that an early newsletter, from 1951, recorded a new addition to the church — a grey-and-white cat, who attended services every Sunday morning, arriving during the organ prelude and seating herself in the aisle, from which she was removed bodily by the ushers. The reporter suggested that the cat's religious zeal was probably 'considerably dampened' by the treatment she received every Sunday!

In more recent years the tradition of keeping a church cat has continued. CC (above left) was an indoor-outdoor cat, who would be there to greet Margie (the administrative assistant) when the church was opened every morning — until one morning, after many years, she just wasn't there any more.

It didn't seem right not to have a church cat — so along came DD (above right), to follow CC and keep up the hard work of greeting people. But one day when DD was entertaining in the VIP office, she suddenly died. So, after a while, a friendly new greeter came to carry on the church cat tradition. She is the handsomely striped Tiggie (left), seen guarding the church against cockroaches!