A Sustainable Life: Funerals will hit 100 million a year by 2060 – here’s how to make them more sustainable
JULIE RUGG, a researcher at the University of York, says – in an article published on The Conversation – that the way we deal with human remains means balancing three major principles…
This Life: Tomorrow is promised to no-one
US columnist CAROL ROUND, in an article published on ASSIST News Service, on the importance of living each day as though it’s your last…
Life after death
I met some religious people on holidays who said to me, while they believe in God, they didn’t believe in life after death. The Bible teaches that “no eye and seen, no heart can perceive what God has prepared for those who trust”. PICTURE: Milo Bauman/Unsplash They were too rational, they couldn’t conceive of […]
Amid Catholic opposition, US states are legalising composting of human remains
RNS Washington, Colorado and Oregon are now among the US states that have legalised the process of converting human bodies into soil, a procedure the Catholic Church said fails to show “respect for the body of the deceased”. Meanwhile, California and New York are seeking to be next in line to allow human composting. The […]
Updated: Britain’s Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II’s ‘strength’ for seven decades, dies at 99
Updated 10am, 10th April (AEST)London, UKReuters Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II’s husband and a pivotal figure in the British royal family for almost seven decades, has died aged 99, Buckingham Palace said on Friday. The Duke of Edinburgh, as he was officially known, had been by his wife’s side throughout her 69-year reign, the longest […]
Myanmar protester dies after 10 days on life support; pressure grows on army
Reuters A young woman protester in Myanmar died on Friday after being shot in the head last week as police dispersed a crowd, her brother said, the first death among opponents of the 1st February military coup since demonstrations began two weeks ago. News of the death came as baton-wielding police and soldiers broke up […]
After death: First human-composting funeral home in US is now open in the state of Washington
ALEJANDRA MOLINA, of Religion News Service, reports on the opening of the first human-composting funeral home in Washington and the push for the practice, controversial for some, to be legalised in California…
Death in a pandemic: US funeral directors survive “surreal” year with creativity and faith
ELIZABETH E EVANS, in an article published by Religion News Service, speaks with representatives of the funeral industry about how they’ve weathered the COVID-19 pandemic…
Sight-Seeing: “No man is an island,” wrote John Donne on a grim Christmas amid a pandemic
In an article first published by Religion News Service, ANDREW MCGOWAN, Anglican priest and dean of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, reflects on how the recognition that death is not the end may help Christians in what is a “grim” Christmas for many…
Lifestory: Rachel Held Evans’ father on his daughter’s final days and the ongoing impact of her life
A year-and-a-half after her death, MAINA MWAURA, of Religion News Service, speaks with Peter Held, father of the late US author and blogger Rachel Held Evans, about his daughter’s career, legacy and the hope he feels thanks to his faith and the support of his daughter’s community…