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Persons facing the end of life, and their families, may find it helpful to prepare in both practical and spiritual ways, and the church is present to offer support.
Clergy and church staff can work with you to make arrangements and plans, and keep them on file in the church. This can be a gift to loved ones, who may live far away or not know your desires. You may want to make decisions regarding interment, lessons to be read, music and other details. Our burial rite is in The Book of Common Prayer, beginning on page 491. We can provide you with a format for leaving these instructions with the church and are pleased to be able to assist you with arrangements.
From The Book of Common Prayer: The liturgy for the dead is an Easter liturgy. It finds all its meaning in the resurrection. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we, too, shall be raised. The liturgy, therefore, is characterized by joy, in the certainty that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
O God, who by the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ destroyed death, and brought life and immortality to light: Grant that your servants, being raised with him, may know the strength of his presence, and rejoice in his eternal glory; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. The Book of Common Prayer, p. 493
