Bodies, Bones, & Burials - The Living Church

Bodies, Bones, & Burials - The Living Church

In my first year of priesthood, I received a call from my dean informing me of the unexpected death of one of our colleagues and giving me instructions to come to the funeral home to participate in preparing his body for burial. I was at that time a Byzantine rite priest of the Catholic Church, and this practice, though perhaps unfamiliar to Anglicans, is standard practice in that communion. We were taken to a part of the funeral home rarely see…