Recently Deceased and Funeral Information
Just like baptisms and marriages, so at death: The rites of a community serve several purposes. They convey a great deal about how death is understood in the group, and about what relationship there is between the living and dead. They may also convey the meaning of this individual’s life. The rites will handle the time of transition from life with this person present in the community to life with this person absent. This recognizes that death ordinarily brings a group-family, neighborhood, church-into a different way of being. Changes like this are always difficult. They may challenge the existence of the group itself, or at the least call people to new roles and new understandings.
