Wesley Smith writes here about some of the creepy new “funeral” services in a secular age.

A recent front page story in the New York Time reported on a new funeral fad during which the recently deceased are posed as if still alive and engaged in a favorite activity…Those who don’t want burial but wish to dispose of their remains without contributing to global warming through cremation now in many places can have their remains liquefied and poured in the sewer.

He then recounts a recent Eastern Orthodox funeral he attended. Read his article here.

When I was the vicar of a country parish in England we had a graveyard outside the church that was thousands of years old. It was very natural and dignified to bring the deceased villager into the church for the funeral–a church in which he or she had probably been baptized as their family members had for generations. Then we’d open the side door and process out of the church and down to the grave which had been opened by an old grave digger. We’d lay the person to rest in genuine simplicity.

My sister was buried like that a few months ago. We made our way to the country churchyard, carried her coffin to the open ground and lowered her down.

That’s the way it should be.