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JOIN SARAH LIVE ON ZOOM

JANUARY 2025

3-Night Course
TOOLS FOR ANIMAL BONDING THROUGH MINDFULNESS PRACTICES

"If there is one book you choose to read about how to enjoy and improve your relationships with animals and fully appreciate who they truly are, this is the one."

 MARC BEKOFF, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals and other books; professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder

If you've
ever loved & lost
an animal...

Sacred Sendoffs

An Animal Chaplain’s Advice For Surviving Animal Loss, Making Life Meaningful, & Healing The Planet
 

by: SARAH A. BOWEN

from: MONKFISH PUBLISHING

An Nautilus Award Winner 

An Ommie Award Winner

An Amazon Best New Release

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Stay up-to-date on upcoming workshops & retreats with Animal Chaplain Sarah Bowen

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GET SUPPORT

Have you experienced the loss of an animal?
COMPANION ANIMAL LOSS SUPPORT GROUP

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Memorial Kit

Whether your loss was yesterday or a few decades ago, we've got some ideas to help you honor your loss... and heal your broken heart.

 

This DIY Ritual Kit for Animal Loss includes Earth, Water, Fire, and Air ritual materials with easy step-by-step instructions. You’ll also get access to poems, meditations, and prayers. Do the rituals alone, with your family,  or invite some friends over to help. Feel free to adapt and be creative. Repeat as often as helpful.

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"Our animal companions have not vanished. They have been transformed. Our enduring connections with them remain for the rest of our lives. And, hopefully, even beyond that."

 SARAH BOWEN, animal chaplain & author of Sacred Sendoffs

Study animal & nature spirituality with Sarah

Animal Chaplaincy Training:
September 2025 - June 2026

A 9-month program leading to Ordination as an Animal Chaplain, with curriculum including interfaith religious perspectives on animals, supporting animal spirituality through the human-animal bond, environmental intersections & planetary ethics and, of course, practical professional skills for animal ministry. This program meets monthly on Zoom and features curated reading & reflection, peer-supported discussion groups, interview-based guest lectures with experts in the field, and community-based experiential learning for developing sacred rituals for animal loss, practicing grief support techniques, and supporting living animals spiritually. Includes 1-on-1 mentorship with Sarah Bowen.

About the Book

An elegant manifesto for improving life and death for all beings on sacred Mother Earth 

Combining humorous anecdotes and thought-provoking research, Sacred Sendoffs explores human relationships with beloved pets, wild creatures, animal astronauts, marine life, farmed animals, and other sentient beings. Along the way, animal chaplain Sarah Bowen shares insights for sustaining lives, honoring deaths, and managing the emotions that arise when we lose an animal we love. While many books focus exclusively on pet loss, environmental issues, or animal welfare, Sacred Sendoffs takes on all three, revealing their unavoidable entanglement. Bowen’s ever curious and playful style tackles tough topics―recovering from personal grief, deconstructing human biases, and acknowledging planetary challenges. Sacred Sendoffs helps animal lovers uncover practical actions and everyday opportunities for helping the more-than-human world not only survive but thrive.

"An ardent invitation to multispecies mourning for our more-than-human companions, from our beloved pets, to the deer on the side of the road, to the rapidly increasing extinction of species on our shared planet."

 Cody J. Sanders, Chaplain at Harvard University & Advisor in the Office of Religious, Spiritual, & Ethical Life, MIT

More Praise for Sacred Sendoffs

“In Sacred Sendoffs, Sarah Bowen guides us gently through the loss of our companion animals, while also nudging us to examine our conceptions about other-than-human beings in general.”
Victoria Moran, author of Creating a Charmed Life and The Good Karma Diet


“We all need to deepen our practice of nonviolence and help build the global grassroots movement for a new culture of nonviolence. Sarah Bowen's beautiful book focuses that call of nonviolence toward animals.”
John Dear, author of The Nonviolent Life, Living Peace, and other books, and executive director of www.beatitudescenter.org

“In crisp, clever language, Sarah presents an elegant manifesto for improving life―and death―for all beings on sacred Mother Earth. You can almost hear her cheering, We can do this, people! Indeed, we can.” 
Barbara Becker, author of Heartwood: The Art of Living with the End in Mind


“Bowen achieves balance between the need for compassion, for understanding, and for justice―from the perspectives of both human and other-than-human animals. Her approach is not to preach, scold, or admonish, but instead to pose questions that inspire thoughtful and honest answers. The many internal reflections and practices offer readers an opportunity to search deeply within their souls and examine their own beliefs and practices as relating to the ‘nonhuman’ world. I am certain that the reader, and the world, will be in a better place from these inquiries.”
William Melton, co-founder of the Compassion Consortium   

Selected Upcoming & Past Events

We're helping the people who help the more-than-human world thrive



April 15-18, 2025 Animal Care Expo, Las Vegas, NV
Humane Society of the United States Annual Conference
Round Table Discussion


January 2024 "Animals: Bonding & Mindfulness" 
3-Part Zoom Course for The Infinity Foundation


 
 
 
September 24, 2024 Bark!Fest
Author panel with Zazie Todd

August 8 -10, 2024  Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, Merton College, UK
Paper Talk on Animal Thinkers: Jane Goodall

June 23-28, 2024 Animal Mindfulness Retreat
Omega Institute, Rhinebeck, NY

May 15-18 Animal Care Expo, San Antonio, Texas
Humane Society of the United States Annual Conference
Round Table Discussion


May 3-4, 2024 Catstravaganza
White Plains, New York
 
Chaplaincy Innovation Lab

Sacred Sendoffs, a talk with Sarah Bowen

United Palace, New York, NY
Watch Open Heart Conversations

Resistance Radio
Sarah talks with Derek Jensen

The Victoria Moran Podcast: Meetings With Remarkable Women
Sarah talks with Victoria Moran

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