Wiccan Green Burials Make Headlines

The Chicago Tribune’s Pagans-at-Halloween story focuses on formaldehyde-free “green burials” at Circle Sanctuary in Wisconsin.

“The thought of getting filled up with formaldehyde and being placed in a sealed, laminated casket and put into a cement box in the ground is not in keeping with preserving Mother Earth,” said [Ana] Blechschmidt, a volunteer chaplain at Northern Illinois University.

“We believe the soul is eternal and immortal. So we want to leave as small a physical footprint as possible. If you honor the Earth you live on, how can you desecrate her and still honor the person you’re burying?”

I absolutely agree. But I still don’t like the C-word: “church.” I don’t like the expectations of active clergy/passive congregation-with-a-rectangular building that it carries. I don’t know if the writer applied that term or if the Circle folks used it.

4 thoughts on “Wiccan Green Burials Make Headlines

  1. Pingback: Wiccan Green Burials Make Headlines | Today Headlines

  2. Josh, it was Circle, not Covenant of the Goddess, but the answer is no. Even if Circle does use the term “church” in their self-description — as a legal category, which they may certainly do — I still do not like its connotations. Sigh.

  3. Thank you for posting this, it is very helpful & timely. I will look into the Green Burial Council as well.

    The use of “church” is peculiar & awkward, isn’t it? One of my community members here in AK is a Priest of the ATC & I’ve always thought the use of church in their name was an odd choice.

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