Fifty enthusiastic, warm and wonderful folks attended from many different backgrounds - chaplains, nurses, consumers, environmentalists, cemeterians, funeral directors and funny, delightful people who stirred up rousing conversation about natural death care. I thoroughly enjoyed myself!

I was having difficulty visioning how the mock burial would go; I never imagined that a cemeterian would volunteer to be lowered into the grave so we could learn how it’s done the old-fashioned way! (That might have been the highlight.) The morning had gone so well and folks were having such a good time getting to know each other that it certainly felt comfortable to be laughing together as we learned.

In the coming weeks I plan to do some research on the manufacture of dry ice (is it environmentally friendly?) and scattering grounds (is this a good prequel to a green cemetery?), among other things. Do you have other questions?

Its so important for all of us to educate ourselves and others about green burial so we can have more options. The only way to make change happen is for us to keep asking for what we want! So much of the time we encounter resistance from our local cemeteries. They really don’t understand what we are asking for. Often, congregations start exploring the possibility of having a green cemetery on their property but get bogged down in details. The cemetery workers in attendance were honest about the amount of work involved in running a cemetery. But after hearing the talk by Barbara Lucas on the environmental impacts of burial choices and by Jack Goodnoe on the beauty of natural burial settings, we all know that this is what we want.

Thanks to everyone who attended. It was a great event and I hope to do another green burial conference next year! Stay tuned!