I sure am proud to be Brethren!
Click here to check out what our church is doing: revolutionizing burial practices. Interment of ashes in a communal garden at the church. Yes, it’s just for one relatively small community. But it has deep implications.
What can I say but WOW? This is truly living out that tagline we’re so familiar with as Church of the Brethren: we’re doing burial in a way that emphasizes community (together in spirit in death as in life), a way that’s simpler than the ecologically-taxing standard burial practices, a way that memorializes peace for the world as well as for each soul tied to that place. I think this is the work of ritual done justly that Jesus would have smiled to see.
This is environmental burial that truly considers our impact on the Earth/earth, even and especially in the midst of one of the biggest life transitions we go through. This is communitarian burial that takes relationships seriously in how we identify ourselves and how we remember ourselves. This is radical stuff! And we’re not just talking about it – we’re just doing it.
Amen!
anna lisa gross said,
November 12, 2008 at 5:33 pm
congratulations Audrey! what a great model of compromise, and probably a gift for many family members (to not have to make SO many decisions) after a loved one dies. has this happened in conjunction with any Sunday school or small group reflection on memorial service planning, or such things?
kara said,
November 29, 2008 at 12:26 am
My church vestry has charged me with researching how we might go about incorporating a memorial garden into our small, urban church lot. One of the members had heard that there are fairly large cineraria in which we could inter everyone’s cremains together, but I have not read about a single church or other facility which uses one. Do you have other ideas for a very small space? A couple of places recycle plots after a number of years (seven is typical).
Thanks!
Kara
Hospitality for the Coming Age » Sharing in death said,
December 3, 2008 at 7:23 pm
[...] more by Associate Pastor and fabulous blogger Audrey [...]
The not-forgotten at Lone Fir Cemetery « brethren priestess online said,
December 4, 2008 at 10:00 pm
[...] Forest Home, Lone Fir, Portland, socialism, Street Roots I’ve always liked cemeteries. Admittedly, they may not be ecologically-sustainable enough for the coming centuries of growing population and [...]