funerals
Death and the Little Black Funeral Dress
By Jana Riess — November 29, 2022
(RNS) — Each time I wear it to mourn someone I’ve loved, my dress becomes more steeped in love and history.
Most Americans today are choosing cremation – here’s why burials are becoming less common
By David Sloane — August 11, 2022
(The Conversation) — As late as 1970, only about 5% of Americans chose to be cremated. In 2020, more than 56% Americans opted for it.
Tallying the dead is one thing, giving them names would take an ‘inexhaustible voice,’ as the ancient Greeks knew
By Joel Christensen — June 7, 2022
(The Conversation) — A scholar of Greek classics revisits the texts to bring lessons on how to honor the lives lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We’ll pray for Uvalde. But as gun deaths mount, there’s too much to pray for.
By Cheryl Townsend Gilkes — May 26, 2022
(RNS) — We’ll pray for understanding of God’s grace, but also for an end to a culture of destructiveness.
Lack of burial space is changing age-old funeral practices, and in Japan ‘tree burials’ are gaining in popularity
By Natasha Mikles — June 9, 2021
(The Conversation) — In a Japanese tree burial, cremated remains are placed in the ground and a tree is planted over the ashes to mark the gravesite. Environmental responsibility is part of Buddhism.
Indians are forced to change rituals for the dead as COVID-19 rages
By Natasha Mikles — May 4, 2021
(RNS) — Families want their loved ones cared for quickly, but there is a shortage of people who can do the funerals.
We should all mourn for the ultra-Orthodox
By Jeffrey Salkin — April 29, 2020
(RNS) — Jew-haters with guns are no longer the greatest threat to Jews. The new enemy is invisible.
Mideastern burial traditions clash with fears of contagion
By Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Samya Kallub — April 7, 2020
BAGHDAD (AP) — Mohammed al-Dulfi’s 67-year-old father died on March 21 after a brief struggle against the new coronavirus, but it would take nine days for his body to find a final resting place in the Shiite holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq. On two occasions, the family rejected remote burial plots proposed by […]
Grief hides in the church bathroom
By Kaitlin Curtice — February 20, 2019
(RNS) — We chose to grieve together in that moment instead of holding things together for the sake of others’ comfort.
This is no way to treat the dead
By Jeffrey Salkin — November 1, 2017
There's a new way of disposing of human bodies. You don't want to know.....
21 boys who died in Islamic school fire buried in Malaysia
By Jerome Socolovsky — September 16, 2017
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The pre-dawn blaze Thursday at a three-story 'tahfiz' school, where Muslim boys study and memorize the Quran, blocked the lone exit from the dormitory, trapping students behind barred windows.
Saints displaced and replaced
By Martin E. Marty — November 7, 2016
If one cannot handle the dust of the grave, there is comfort to be had, it is reasoned, in the designer urns to be mounted on the mantel at home.
Vatican to Catholics: Cremation can be OK, but don’t scatter ashes!
By Josephine McKenna — October 25, 2016
VATICAN CITY (RNS) New guidelines also forbid loved ones from dividing up the 'cremains' or keeping them in jewelry or on the mantelpiece.
Funerals held for slain police
By RNS staff — July 14, 2016
DALLAS -- Thousands of police officers joined by ordinary citizens attended funerals for three of the policemen shot dead in a racially motivated ambush attack last week that intensified America's long-running debate on race and justice.
How secular Americans are reshaping funeral rituals
By Simon Davis — December 17, 2015
(RNS) This may be the year that cremation surpasses burial for the first time in the United States, as a long-standing trend continues.
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