| Cremation In The Christian World |
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Today, Cremation is an increasingly popular form of disposition of the deceased. This is true even in the Christian world, which for many years was opposed to cremation, but which has come to a greater acceptance of cremation over the past century. In Christian countries, cremation fell out of favour due to the Christian belief in the physical resurrection of the body, and as making difference on the Iron Age European pre-Christian Pagan religions, who usually cremated their dead. Beginning in the Middle Ages , rationalists and classicists began to advocate it. In the Medieval Europe , cremation was practised only on special occasions, such as in situations where there were multitudes of corpses simultaneously present, such as after a Battle , after a Pestilence or Famine , and there was an imminent danger of diseases spreading by the corpses. Much later, Sir Henry Thompson , Surgeon to Queen Victoria , was the first to recommend the practice on health grounds after seeing the cremation apparatus of Professor Brunetti of Padua , Italy at the Vienna Exposition in 1873 . In 1874 Thompson founded The Cremation Society of England. The society met opposition from the church, which would not allow cremation on consecrated ground, and from the government, who believed the practice to be illegal. Cremation was forced through British law when a Welsh doctor, Dr William Price burned his infant son, named Jesus Christ, in a Pagan ritual shortly before 1883 in the historic town of Llantrisant . The doctor was a well known eccentric whose cremation ceremony was initially stopped by people coming home from church. The police returned the partially burned body of his son on condition that it would neither be buried nor burned. Later that year Dr. Price reneged on his promise and burned his son's remains. The townsfolk, unhappy with this sacrilege, went in an angry mob to burn out Dr. Price, but were turned back when they discovered only his wife armed with pistols, and that Dr Price had already left the building. This later resulted in Dr. Price's arrest and an 1884 court case, which resulted in an amendment to legalize cremation in February of that year. An Act Of Parliament ''for the Regulation of burning of human remains, and to enable burial authorities to established crematoria'' was passed in 1902 . THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH For most of its history, the , Church regulations stipulated that cremation was to take place after the funeral service has taken place. The Church still prefers that funeral services take place before cremation. Such funeral services are conducted in the same manner as those of traditional burials up to the point of committal, where the body is taken to the crematorium instead of being buried. A burial service is performed after the cremation has finished. In 1997 the funeral rite was modified so that church funerals can take place when the body has already been cremated and the ashes were brought to the Church . In such cases the ashes are placed in an Urn or another worthy vessel. They are brought into the church and placed on a stand near the Easter Candle . During the church service, and during the committal rite, prayers that make reference to the body are modified. Any prayers that refer to the "Body" of the deceased are replaced with "Earthly Remains." Since the lifting of the ban, even with the official preference for burial, the Church has become more and more open to the idea of cremation. Many Catholic cemeteries now provide Columbarium niches for housing cremated remains as well as providing special sections for the burial of cremated remains. Columbarium niches have even been made part of church buildings - for example the Cathedral Of Our Lady Of The Angels in Los Angeles, California has a number of niches in the crypt Mausoleum . However, in most cases, church officials tend to discourage this practice because of concerns over what would happen to the niches if such a Parish closes or decides to replace the current building. The Church does specify requirements for the reverent disposition of ashes. This means that the ashes are to be buried or entombed in an appropriate container, such as an urn. The Church does not permit the scattering of ashes or keeping them at home. Traditional Catholic s have objected to the practice of allowing cremation, which they cite as one reason among others to support their claim that the post- Vatican II church is no longer the true Catholic Church. EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH The Eastern Orthodox Church forbids cremation. Exceptions are made for circumstances where it may not be avoided (when civil authority demands it, or epidemics) or if it may be sought for good cause, but when a cremation is willfully chosen for no good cause by the one who is deceased, he or she is not permitted a funeral in the church and may also be permanently excluded from liturgical prayers for the departed. In Orthodoxy, cremation is a rejection of the dogma of the general resurrection, and as such is viewed harshly. PROTESTANT CHURCHES The Protestant Churches have approved cremation earlier than the Catholic Church, the rationale being "God can resurrect a bowl of ashes just as conveniently as he can resurrect a bowl of dust". The development of modern crematoriums also helped to make difference on Pagan rite of burning the body on pyre. The first crematorium in Stockholm , Sweden was built 1874; in Finland , the Helsinki Lutheran Parish Union built its first modern crematorium in 1926 (still in use). Nowadays in Lutheran Scandinavia , some 50 to 70 percent of the dead are cremated, and in large towns up to 90%. In the Scandinavian Lutheran doctrine, the ashes are to be dealt with the same dignity as any earthly remains. They are either to be interred in urn or sprinkled on consecrated ground, thus "dust returning to dust", and not stored at home or disposed in a way which shows indignity. Most large parishes do have crematoriums as part of their chapels, and urns are buried in the cemetery in ordinary manner, or ashes can be sprinkled on special consecrated grounds. Some seashore parishes do have also consecrated sea areas where the ashes can be scattered. The resurgence of cremation has also seen the resurgence of the old Lutheran tradition of family graves in Scandinavia . As urns require less space than caskets, the family grave on the cemetery can now contain the earthly remains of the family members in many generations. |
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