GUIDELINES RE ANGLICAN USE AND CUSTOM REGARDING CHRISTIAN BURIAL
1. The clergy who will be conducting funerals should be consulted as early as possible and certainly before final arrangements are made. No publication of time or place of the service should be made previous to this consultation.
2. The burial service in the Book of Common Prayer and in the Book of Alternative Services is primarily intended for use in a church and the church buildings will be available when desired. Services also may be held in a funeral director's chapel. The final decision as to where the service is to be held will be determined by the family, in consultation with the officiant.
3. It should be understood that officiating clergy are in complete charge of the service, whether it be in a church or elsewhere.
4. When the service is to be in the church, the coffin is brought to the church a few hours before the service begins. If the service is to take place in a funeral home, the body may remain there until the time of the service.
5. The casket should be closed before the service begins, whether in the church or funeral chapel, and usually it is not reopened. It may be covered by a funeral pall if such is available.
6. Clergy are encouraged to preach briefly, in the words of the B.A.S.
"expressing thanksgiving for the gifts of the deceased person, especially the marks of a Christian life. Such remarks, without denying the legitimate grief of the mourners, should relate the life and death of the Christian to the victory of Christ."
7. At a service in a church, flowers are customary, but both the number of pieces and their location will be at the discretion of the clergy. In some churches, they may be restricted to those used at the altar.
8. It is helpful for funeral directors to provide copies of the service, either than from the B.C.P. or the B.A.S., for the use of people attending funerals in their chapels. These may be purchased through the Anglican Book Centre in Toronto.
9. Music should be in keeping with the religious nature of the services, and should witness to the Christian belief in life everlasting. There is a wide selection of hymns and appropriate organ music available.
10. It is proper for members of a fraternal organization who so desire, to attend the funeral service of one of their former members as a group. If the family desires the rites of any such fraternal society, they should take place apart from the burial office of the church and prior to it, preferably at some such time as the previous evening.
11. The committal should be taken at the graveside as it is a committal into a final resting place. When conditions necessitate the temporary use of a cemetery chapel or vault, and the body must be held for future interment, or when there is a delay due to cremation, clergy will still expect to have the opportunity of conducting the committal when it takes place. It is the officiant's pastoral duty to ensure that the act of interment is properly completed.
12. In the case where the body is not recoverable or has been left to science, a memorial service and/or a requiem should be held.
13. Earth or sand, and not flowers, should be used at the committal and should be used by the clergy if so desired, or by the funeral director, if requested.
14. At the committal, it is Anglican preference for the casket to be lowered into the grave before the officiant leaves.
15. Following cremation, the ashes may be committed to the ground, using appropriate, simple prayers such as are found in the Book of Common Prayer (page 602) or in the Book of Alternative Services
16. In the matter of the death of infants, three different states are recognized by the law. (See the Vital Statistics Act of Ontario of December 15, 1961):
a) an infant "who dies any time after birth, even within seconds" - in such a case a death certificate is issued, and the usual funeral arrangements are made;
b) still births of 20 weeks of pregnancy or more - a still birth of this nature must, by law, be registered and a burial permit is issued. Clergy normally officiate at the burial and the committal will be taken at the graveside;
c) in the case of still birth of less than 20 weeks of pregnancy, no registration is required by law, and although it is not customary, requests may be made for clergy to hold a burial service. Such a service may be very desirable.
17. Very often such moments of crisis as the death of a family member are times through which faith can be rekindled. Clergy are reminded of this so that they may encourage families to return to the local worshipping community as soon as possible.
18. The burial service is the congregational form of prayer appropriate to the death of a member of the Christian community. The whole congregation - including the relatives of the deceased and the pallbearers - should stand for the Sentences, join in the Psalm and Hymns, sit for the Lesson, and kneel for the prayers - as at any other form of worship.
19. No fee is necessary as all clergy offer the rites of Christian burial as part of their regular ministry.
20. Any contemplated variation from Anglican use and custom regarding Christian burial should be referred to the Area Bishop.
REVISED September 1995 |
