Our symposium here in Greensboro, N.C., many months in the making, is over -- and what a weekend it was! I tallied the evaluation sheets this afternoon and from all accounts, the event was deeply appreciated by the 110 people who registered as well as others who attended the Friday night talk by Mark Harris.
"When Death Knocks: A Community Symposium" offered each participant a choice of three workshops among 11 options ranging from the conventional to the alternative. Several were directly related to home funerals, including C. L. Hickerson's workshop on the home funeral and burial of his mother Nellie Hickerson on the family's 80-acre homestead in Randolph County, a workshop by Ahmad-Rufai Abdullah and David Zaborsky on Muslim and Jewish funeral customs and interfaith collaboration around community care of the dead, and Sandy LaGrega's workshop on natural burial and care of the body at home. I offered copies of "Undertaken With Love" to those who showed an interest in home funerals, and of course Mark Harris' Friday night talk on natural alternatives to the modern funeral portrayed home funerals and natural burials as the most environmentally considerate options in final arrangements. Carol Cothern's workshop on funeral myths and consumer rights educated participants about their rights and responsibilities in home death care as well.
While the symposium was intended primarily for Piedmont Triad residents, we had people register from afar. Funeral Consumers Alliance members from Wilmington, Asheville and the Triangle came, and home funeral educators came from Asheville and Pennsylvania. The award for the furthest distance goes to Joyce Mitchell of our own "Undertaken With Love" project, who flew in just for the symposium all the way from Provo, Utah! We also had a film crew from Indiana University that is working on a documentary on American funeral practices for its PBS affliate.
The symposium was co-sponsored by Funeral Consumers Alliance of the Piedmont, FaithAction International House, and the Sophia Center for Life Studies of Greensboro. Many, many people contributed time, money and endorsements to make it possible, but I think one of the biggest factors behind its success was the support and involvement of Greensboro's interfaith religious communities. My personal passion has been working to involve faith communities in working toward funeral reform and in reclaiming their voice in shaping the etiquette of funeral practices in America -- and this event shows how many more people can be reached with our message of options and possibilities when religious leaders and institutions join our work.
We are especially grateful to First Lutheran Church for hosting our event. Its sanctuary was a lovely contemporary backdrop for Mark Harris' presentation; its fellowship hall offered comfortable seating for our catered lunch; and the classroom facilities were amazingly well equipped.
One of my personal hopes is that one outcome of the symposium will be the start of a few congregational committees to explore the concept of home funerals via our guide Undertaken With Love.
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