Vancouver’s bikes are blessed
(from the Vancouver Sun)
“We’re trying to draw the connection between responsible use of creation and bicycles,” [Rev.] Borthistle said in an interview.
“The bicycle is symbolic of an ecologically responsible lifestyle, so when we’re blessing the bicycle, what we’re saying is we’re acknowledging that [cyclists] have made a conscious choice to live in an ecologically responsible way.”
Almost every part of the bicycle was blessed at the event. “Bless these seats that they shall carry us in comfort…Bless these wheels and tires that they soften the blow of the unsuspected pothole…Bless these bicycles, martyred saints of the machine age,” cyclists recited on the steps of the cathedral over the rumble of buses, cars and trucks driving past on the corner of Burrard and Georgia Streets.
