Hi, that's me in the photo!
I first heard about Blessing of the Animals services from a friend of mine (who is now our snakesitter) who just adores and advocates for all kinds of animals, and who brought her cat to such a service. She visits lots of different churches and told me about one such event where some snakes got blessed. Hazysnake and I are active in our church (Methodist) and are interested in having a Blessing of the Animals at our own church one day. It's a great way to celebrate what pets add to our lives, including (I am biased enough to say, especially,) snakes, and to thank God for them. It's not like a "you better get your animals blessed or they won't go to heaven" or "my pets are better than your pets because we had them blessed," but it's a lovely and meaningful experience to share with the animals, and those who love them.
We brought Shermy to church once at our minister's special invitation. He even talked to the kids about what a bad reputation snakes have, including in the Bible, but that we can learn from snakes about how people often misjudge others. He mentioned many good things that snakes do for the ecology, and that they are often unfairly thought of as "the bad guys." We also let all the kids meet and pet Shermy after the church service. A great time was had by all!
One day I was telling our snakesitter names of possible religions for snakes. Our snakes would obviously be Methodhissts. Then there are Bapthissts, Prhissbyterians, Congregationalhissts, Seventh-Day Adventhissts, etc.