The First Church of Murray was created in a pasture in Sebastopol, California on Christmas Eve 1991. As I leaned across the barbed wire to greet my good friend Murray, a donkey, I realized that there was a big part of the Christmas story going unacknowledged. No doubt this oversight extends into all the world's religions. Looking into Murray's large brown compassionate eyes I realized it was time for a change.

Thus the First Church of Murray was born. At that moment he became my "buru" and I became his first disciple.

Through my writings, as well as many escorted visits to see the master, many others have come to join me in revering this gentle soul as he so naturally took on the responsibility of representing the wisdom, beauty and power of all the creatures we have relegated to second class citizenship on our climb up the mountain of spiritual attainment.

The First Church of Murray has no temples other than the blanket of stars that form its ceiling at night and the warm rays of the sun that illuminate its distant boundaries during the day. It is available to all who are willing to look into the eyes of a creature and dare to see the Divine looking back at them.

It is telling that Church of Murray spells COM, for indeed that is how I always felt in his presence. The growth of this church will not be marked in real estate or ceremony, but in an ever spreading peace within the hearts of people and beasties alike.

May it be so.