By Heather Melton, UTO Staff Officer

One of the things I used to do when I was a parish priest during Lent was hold a workshop to help people begin to think about their funerals. While this may sound like a dark and depressing sort of thing to do, it can actually be very joyful. We begin Lent by embracing our mortality, and we consider it again at Easter with the resurrection. Funerals, in the Episcopal tradition, are celebrations; clergy wear white just like at Easter. We celebrate the feast day of saints on the day they died/entered into heaven as a celebration of their life and work. This means that Lent and Easter are a great time to think about end-of-life issues. 

As a parish priest, I started these workshops because I watched how hard it was for loved ones to try to pick the ”right” hymns or lessons with which to remember their relative. They struggled to remember what hymns they liked and often felt guilty for not knowing exactly what to choose. By picking hymns and lessons, among other things, you offer suggestions to your family of things that would be meaningful to you. I’ve known people who wanted to ensure that their funeral was filled with love and hope as a message to their family for after they were gone. Others used this opportunity to (hopefully) keep arguments at a minimum for their children, for whom they knew this would be a challenge to arrange together given their divergent paths as adults. Regardless of why one might want to have a plan for their funeral service, it is always received as a gift when I could give it to those planning it in the midst of so many other details, costs, and paperwork. 

We’ll finish up our time with a reminder about the UTO Memorial Trust Fund. Some have asked us the best way to remember UTO in their will, so we will share how to do that for those who are interested. We’ll also talk about what the trust does and how to contribute to it during the year for memorials and thanksgivings for which you want a special acknowledgement sent.

Due to the nature of the topic, space is limited in these webinars, so please only register for the one that you want to attend. We will not be recording them, so if you can’t make any of the times offered but would like the worksheet, please just email me directly.

Register for the Tuesday, April 18, at noon Eastern webinar:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMufuuuqTsiGNU-BThxPhH7Ax_BlR3r0tO9

Register for the Thursday, April 20, at 5:30 p.m. Eastern webinar:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMvd-2opjojE9Y7GYeIWqsDrFtNklH8U830

Register for the Saturday, April 22, at 10 a.m. Eastern webinar:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUrceyvpjouH9UU_kmquItDsYCjFOkqx4HI