The urban church does not have a cemetery as most rural churches have. Here, city cemeteries cover hundreds of acres with anonymous markers.
Family plots are rare, and it is difficult to find a grave of a loved one.
M ost of our members had never been at a funeral when we started talking about death in sermons and Sunday school fellowship gatherings. A woodworker volunteered to build a casket with an inside plywood box liner to make it reusable. Our church now participates in a more economical dying process. W e introduced the casket on a Sunday morning. It was in front, hidden under a large Mennonite Central Committee Relief Sale quilt.