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--- standard_church_of_england_teaching [2020/11/16 11:30]
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-== Christianity and Cremation ==
+== Anglican view on Death ==
-It is not difficult to see why there may be Christian objections to cremation. “The resurrection of the body” is a basic credal belief, founded on the Gospel accounts of the physical reality of Jesus’s resurrection. If you burn the body to a bucketful of dust, how can it possibly be resurrected? No surprise to find then that although cremation as a means of disposal of the dead is very ancient and widespread (both geographically and culturally) the Christian church found the idea repugnant, when, in the second half of the nineteenth century, the modern technology of cremation was perfected. Indeed, the matter was made more complicated by the fact that the first “modern” cremation in the UK was a deliberate act of defiance and disavowal of the doctrine of resurrection by a Welsh atheist in Llantrisant.
+The reality is that Anglicans believe all sorts of things! Although there is an Anglican orthodoxy, - which we will try to present here - if you asked a dozen Anglicans what they thought happened after death, you would get at least thirteen answers!
-Soon, denominational loyalties opened a split between, broadly, fundamentalist and Pentecostal groups who continued to resist cremation (except in extraordinary situations such as war, famine or plague.) on the one hand; and the (slightly) more liberal theologians of the Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions on the other. They held that God can reconstitute any body - whether from ash or from soil - and endow it with the essential characteristics of the original so that it becomes as recognisable as it was in its earthly form.
+Most would start from the resurrection of Jesus on the first Easter day. Some will see that as a spiritual rather than physical resurrection, but most would point to the lengths the Gospel writers go to to emphasise the fleshliness of Jesus’ resurrection appearances. Mary clings to him, embracing him. Thomas handles his wounds. He asks for something to eat. He cooks breakfast…..You might want to dismiss these as glosses designed to give credence to a far-fetched notion, but once you go down that road, there is no knowing where to stop. The Church has traditionally seen these bits of evidence as divinely inspired reminders of a key item of belief; that Jesus experienced new life in his original body.
-It was not until 1964 that this view became official Roman Catholic doctrine - and it was even then treated with considerable caution, not to say distaste. Both Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions make it clear that burial is the preferred mode of disposal in normal conditions. Roman Catholics do not encourage the scattering of ashes; formally Anglicans need a bishop’s permission, though our experience is that this is widely ignored. The emphasis is on dignity and reverence as marks of respect for the body and personhood of the deceased.
+And he promises us the same, in the way he promised the penitent crook crucified with him. “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” But what of the transfiguration, when Jesus took his three closest friends up the mountain and “was transfigured before them” and then had Moses and Elijah appear with him? How can that be reconciled with a physical continuity after death?  Transfiguration is itself not inconsistent with physicality. After all. Peter was concerned about sunstroke and offered to make benders for each of them to protect them from the power of the sun. He evidently saw them as physical beings. (Sure, he was so overcome he did not know what he was saying, but his reaction is nonetheless suggestive.)
+Nonetheless there is a difficulty with the way the resurrected come and go. Jesus seems to pass through walls or shut doors with no problems; Moses and Elijah come and go on the mountain top. Jesus finally “ascends” with his earthly body. Can we have it both ways - a physical body such as we know now; but one that does not always follow the rules of matter? There  is no easy way through this impasse. The resurrected body is the same but different - and that will be true of our bodies after death.
+The church has traditionally (at least since the third century) insisted that after death we remain social creatures who enjoy each other’s company. That is what is meant by the credal statement of “the communion of saints”. It is a great pity that this credal belief is so seldom taught or talked about today. What it is saying is that after death we remain communicative, social beings, with our attention focussed on the Holy Trinity but relating to those around us. Heaven, then, is where we develop relationships that are healthy and holy.
+So what does this mean for someone weeping for a loved one? It means that they still exist; they have a “life” and that we shall be reunited with them in a state of eternal blessedness. We grieve the separation from them - but we believe it is only temporary.  And we believe that they are, in their  present way of being, happier than they have ever been.
-Pentecostals and less biblically based groups like the Mormons would emphasise these, too; but would insist that the only way of securing them is by burial. Mormons have, however, recently become more tolerant of cremation, recognising that we depend on the grace and power of God to reconstitute us in our eternal state, whether we are buried, blown up or burnt to death in a house fire.
-Faith communities are often slow to respond to social and technical changes in the world around them - and here is a classic case of that lagged response. It was 88 years that elapsed between the opening of the first crematorium in UK and a Catholic priest being permitted to officiate at a funeral there.  All the evidence suggests that the old distaste of cremation will disappear as we become increasingly short of land for cemeteries.  The environmental impact of cremation is becoming a (minor) concern; technical adaptations (eg “scrubbing” the flue gases) are mandated increasingly widely.