Earth to earth, or Ashes to ashes?

CHURCH OF ENGLAND CONSIDERS GREENER SEND-OFFS

Before Archbishop Desmond Tutu passed away just over a year ago, he left wishes requesting the cheapest, most basic coffin and asked to be 'aquamated' - a process using water that is a more environmentally friendly alternative to cremation. And just last month 'Human composting', involving the natural organic reduction of human body parts into the soil, became legal in New York.

This week the matter of whether there were any 'theological objections' to the church backing these and other greener methods of saying goodbye, was raised by The Reverend Canon Andrew Dotchin at the Church of England's General Synod, that's currently meeting in London (the week of 6th February 2023). The Bishop of Lichfield responded that he'd like the Reverend Dotchin to help to organise a small consultation including members of the Faith and Order and Liturgical Commissions to look at the alternatives currently being used elsewhere and consider the theological, practical and pastoral issues around these methods.

The proposal makes a lot of sense particularly when figures quoted in The Independent show that "a typical crematorium will send between 160kg and 190kg of CO2 into the atmosphere for each cremation it carries out, the rough equivalent of driving a car for 470 miles." As well as cutting the environment costs Reverend Dotchin also pointed out that more eco-conscious methods will help the Church of England in their race to net zero. (In 2020, the General Synod, agreed to set a target of carbon neutrality by 2030).

The process of 'aquamation' (also known as 'resomation' or 'alkaline hydrolysis'), liquifies most of the body after it's immersed in water with a mixture of a strong alkali for at least three to four hours. The bones are later dried in an oven and reduced to dust. 'Human composting', which is also known as 'terramation' involves the addition of microbes which are used to break bodies down into compost. Organic materials and warm air speed up the decomposition process so that within 30 days everything other than artificial materials (which are removed in advance) is broken down to leave around one cubic metre of soil.

Referring to Desmond Tutu's aquamation that took place in Cape Town, Reverend Canon Andrew Dotchin said that Tutu's choice was a "challenge (to) other Christians to be more careful with what they do with their remains."