The top candidate for the Anglican Communion's strangest story of the year comes from the Church of England, where the Rev. Carol Stone returned to St. Philip's Church, Upper Stratton, following a sex change.

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"I used to be Fr. Peter; now I'm the Reverend Carol," she told the Church Times. "But I'm still vicar, and that's a position that will safeguard against too much confusion." The Rev. Peter Stone had announced in June he was seeking gender redesignation and took leave from the parish. When she returned, "Reverend Carol" received a standing ovation from her congregation at the conclusion of her sermon.

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The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry is still enjoying a "honeymoon" period as Bishop of North Carolina, having been greeted by what the diocesan newspaper, The Communicant, called "adoring crowds" on his first visits to congregations. At one event, a woman addressed Sharon Curry, the bishop's wife, "I'm in love with your husband!" Mrs. Curry, apparently unfazed, replied, "Will you do his laundry?"

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Harvest Plain, newspaper of the Diocese of Quincy, carried a report of what must have been an exciting Pet Blessing Day at St. Jude's Church, Princeton, Ill. The festivities included a yapping Yorkshire terrier, a cat named Oreo that leaped into a tree, a dog named Maggie which drank the holy water, and a dog which became so exuberant that he uprooted the sapling to which he was tied. St. Francis probably would have loved it!

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Diocesan and other church publications have been filled with photos and accounts of blessings of animals for the feast of St. Francis. I've seen photos of priests with camels, pythons, turtles, parrots and other domestic critters, but the most unusual has to be the one described by the Rev. Canon Jonathon Jensen, canon pastor of Christ Church Cathedral, New Orleans, in The Catalyst, a quarterly theological journal published by GenX types. It's a shark. It seems the fish had been kept in an aquarium and grew to about 1 foot in length. Canon Jensen did not report whether the priest touched the shark.

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My one and only contact with the late Rt. Rev. Jackson E. Gilliam, sixth Bishop of Montana [TLC, Dec. 24], came during General Convention last summer. The bishop stopped by our booth one day and registered for a free subscription which was drawn each day. The following day his name was pulled out of the fish bowl, and later he was informed he had won. "I've never won anything in my life!" he exclaimed, and, despite walking with two canes, seemed to have a bit of a spring in his step as he moved through the exhibit hall. I saw him for the last time at the Denver airport as he was entering the subway, riding in a wheelchair.

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So how did the Great Litany go in your congregation? At St. James', Conroe, Texas, director of music Donald W. Duncan reports the litanist sang the following: "From all evil and wickedness; from sin; from the crafts and assaults of the devil and from everlasting Dalmatians…" Mr. Duncan wrote that the litanist reported later that his sons had been begging to see the film 102 Dalmatians. James Strand, of Maine, recalled the time a priest singing the litany chanted, "That it may please thee to eliminate all bishops."

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Just when you think you've heard it all ... The Church in Hiawathaland, newspaper of the Diocese of Northern Michigan, reports that a "drive by" wedding took place at Grace Church, Menominee. It seems that a couple from Menasha, Wis., had made arrangements to be married at a Menominee church, only to arrive the day of the wedding and find the church locked and its pastor out of town. The bridal couple, their pastor and 10 attendants drove around the community looking for a church which was unlocked. They found Grace Church, obtained permission and were married there.

David Kalvelage, executive editor