Rediscovering & Reclaiming Dying, Death, and Mourning Rituals

“… practices and rituals serve the human soul, mysteriously and powerfully helping us bear the weight of our grief and anxiety about our own mortality. ”

Team Members/Contributors

Sarah E. Campbell Mayflower UCC Contact Me

About this pastoral study project

In the last 50 years or so we American liberal Protestants have lost our way, or have been led astray. When a loved one dies, most of us no longer tend to the beloved body, caringly and deliberately accompanying it to its final resting place, as humans have done across the millennia. This lack is not good for our souls, neither as individuals nor as a culture. Other religions, including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, have clear and rich traditions surrounding death and mourning. What can we learn from them about the importance of these practices and rituals? What must we reclaim from our own tradition? They include: the 24-hour wake at home; washing and preparation of the body; being present when the body goes into the ground or enters the crematorium; etc.

Image Title Year Type Contributor(s) Other Info
  Pilgrimage to Varanasi, the Holy City of Death 2016 Magazine Article Sarah E. Campbell
Winter 2016, pp 12-17