Niche market

Columbaria appeal to a growing number of church members

 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STATON BREIDENTHAL --8/26/14-- The  columbarium garden at St. Mark's Episcopal Church provides a sacred spot for cremated remains.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STATON BREIDENTHAL --8/26/14-- The columbarium garden at St. Mark's Episcopal Church provides a sacred spot for cremated remains.

When Tracy Spillman's first wife, Anne, died of cancer in 2008, it seemed fitting that her final resting place would be at their church home -- St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Little Rock. It was further fitting that her ashes would be interred in an outdoor columbarium that he helped design.

Anne, 44, passed away six weeks after being diagnosed with cancer.

"At that point, the world just came down on me," Spillman said. "But I immediately had a place to go and a place that was meaningful to my wife and a place where our children had run through. That became very important to me."

A columbarium is a structure or garden with niches for urns and cremains. Church cemeteries are scattered throughout Arkansas, especially in rural areas. Over time, churches closed and some cemeteries were left abandoned, with relatives left to tend to the graves of their loved ones. Others simply ran out of space. For churches in urban areas, space for cemeteries of their own is often lacking. As a result, some congregations have turned to columbaria as an option.

A columbarium ties in with the historic tradition of churchyard burials.

Ted Campbell, associate professor of church history at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, said in the Anglican tradition members were often buried in a crypt within the church and in the Middle Ages it was the norm for churches to have burial grounds. Cremation, however, wasn't done.

"The old idea was that we are honoring the body [through burial] and the body will be resurrected, not just the spirit," Campbell said. "It's a distinctly Christian thing to insist on burial of the body."

Campbell said views on cremation began to evolve in the 1800s, but noticeable change came after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, when the Catholic Church began to allow cremation.

According to the National Funeral Directors Association, the rate of cremation in the United States was 3.5 percent in 1960. By 2011, the rate had risen to 42 percent. Nevada leads the way with 74 percent of the dead being cremated. Arkansas is in the bottom 10 -- ranked at No. 7 with 29.5 percent opting for cremation.

Within mainline Protestant churches, the move toward columbaria took hold in the 1980s and 1990s, Campbell said, adding that today more churches are embracing them as an alternative to traditional cemeteries.

The Rev. Erik Pohlmeier, pastor of Our Lady of the Holy Souls Catholic Church in Little Rock, said the Catholic faith places great emphasis on the dignity of the body even in death.

"We believe in heaven we will be body and soul. In the creed every Sunday, we say we believe in the resurrection of the body, so we believe that will happen," he said. "Even with cremation allowed now, there still has to be an emphasis on that."

Pohlmeier said part of the church's change in thinking on cremation had to do with the realization that the body, even when buried, would eventually become "ashes to ashes and dust to dust."

"So if God is raising up a deceased body, He will not be prevented from resurrecting ashes," he said.

By placing the ashes in a columbarium on consecrated ground instead of scattering them in the wind, that sense of dignity of the body remains, he said.

The columbarium at Our Lady of the Holy Souls was built in 2002 and sections were added through the years. The niches are encased in brick walls in a courtyard on the church grounds.

Pohlmeier lives within sight of the columbarium and said he often sees people stopping by.

"It's a place of prayer for people," he said.

ANOTHER OPTION

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Fayetteville added a columbarium late last year. The Rev. Clint Schnekloth said members were interested in creating a space for the remains of their loved ones. The church doesn't have a cemetery and with more and more people opting for cremation, a columbarium on church grounds seemed like a good option.

The outdoor columbarium flanks a row of windows along the sanctuary. Each niche has space for two containers of cremains and there is space to add to the columbarium if needed.

As more choose to be cremated instead of buried, Schnekloth said, the church has had to adapt burial practices and how they counsel those who are dying or families who are grieving.

"This is a beautiful way to adjust to the fact that people are cremated," he said. "We have a memorial service in the sanctuary and go outside to this really nice, prayerful place and do this dedication and it's a really nice way to say goodbye."

Parishioners at St. Mark's Episcopal Church began discussing a columbarium around 1979 and completed the first phase of their garden columbarium in the early 1980s. A second phase was added years later and now the area includes about 1,200 plots. Pat Petkoff, chairman of the columbarium committee, said about half are sold and about 250 cremains -- of members of St. Mark's or their immediate family -- are interred there.

The niches at St. Mark's are in the ground instead of in a memorial wall or structure. Markers line a pathway that winds through the garden and a statue of Christ serves as a focal point. Each year on All Saints' Day (Nov. 1), parishioners hold a service in the garden columbarium to remember the dead. The names of the departed are read one by one.

The Rev. Danny Schieffler, pastor of St. Mark's, said the columbarium is a reminder of those who have departed.

'CLOUD OF WITNESSES'

"The Bible speaks of a 'great cloud of witnesses' and we've got a visible reminder, if you will, because we have interred saints surrounding us each Sunday," he said. "There's a wholeness, a return to the ancient tradition of being buried at the church."

When ashes are interred, the congregation gathers around to bear witness.

"I think there's such a denial of death in our culture but when everybody gathers around and says, 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust' and acknowledges death, there is no denial. At the same time, we are bearing witness to our faith and to the power of God," he said. "This is a way to embrace that reality in all its fullness and at the same time proclaim the faith."

Schieffler said the columbarium means a lot to the parish and its proximity to the church allows family and friends to visit loved ones often. Benches are set along the path and people often stop to sit and pray.

"It's a lovely, beautiful, peaceful space," Schieffler said. "Some afternoons I look out and there's someone grieving the loss of a loved one and spending time in solitude. It's part of the grieving process. People really appreciate that."

For Spillman, a landscape architect, the idea of a columbarium was appealing. When he was asked to design a new phase at St. Mark's, he wanted it to be a place of comfort.

"I wanted it to be intimate ... a quiet space," he said.

He loosely based the design on a turf labyrinth -- one created in grass -- known as Julian's Bower, never thinking he would need to use it so soon. After Anne's death, he reserved a spot next to her. He's remarried now but still stops by the columbarium regularly to pay his respects or to simply take time to think.

"It's not necessarily a spot that's sad for me, but a place to go and center myself and think," he said. "If I've had a hard day, I can go there and sit and reflect. It's a nice, peaceful setting."

Religion on 08/30/2014

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