The Ritual of Remembering: Funerals and Memorial Services

Summary

Today we begin the season of Lent, and we also begin a worship series on the rituals of loss and remembrance; a series on death and dying. You might be asking: Why a death and dying series for Lent?

There are a number of reasons we are doing this. One reason for this series is that the topic of death and dying has come up in several commission meetings: Caregiving, Missions, Christian Education and Coordinating Council. The conversations included individuals asking for resources for funeral planning, the stewardship of our property, having a memorial garden, the desire to have conversation/education about death and dying, and the recognition that every joyful event for some people, like pregnancy and the birth of a baby, brings up painful experiences of infertility, miscarriage and stillbirth for others. In the complexity of human life, joy and sorrow are mixed together. As Dan and I talked about this, we began to see much synergy between the season of Lent, with its built‐in focus on mortality, deepening spirituality and hope, and this topic of loss and grief.