The Columbarium

The earliest Christian churches were built around the graves of the saints. Ever since then, burial in a churchyard or in a cathedral or parish church has been an ancient and venerable custom throughout the centuries in all Christian lands. From the earliest Colonial days, American churches have provided places of burial within their grounds, in peaceful churchyards, in crypts in walls or in walkways or within the sanctuary itself. Memorial crypts and columbaria exist in many parishes throughout the Episcopal Church. Burial in the church provides a prayerful place of remembrance and witnesses to the holiness of the body and our mortal remains. Cremation and the internment of ashes has been a reverent Christian method of burial from the earliest days of the Church. It is consistent with the Scriptures and the precept of our sure and certain hope in the Resurrection.