holy fire / cremation: a practice in need of ritual (article re-post)

Thanks to Jim Lee, a seminary classmate, who forwarded this article from Christian Century to me while I was at a crematory witnessing the cremation and processing of the remains of a friend's father yesterday.  Thankfully, the staff of this particular crematory were very accommodating and respectful of our wanting to "go the full distance with the dead."  Reuben and Joe (the crematory operators I met there) were very professional and candid in answering many of my questions about the practice of contemporary cremation and their experiences with families over the years.

(excerpt) "For persons of faith the essential elements of a good funeral remain few and familiar: the dead pilgrim, the living to whom the death matters, and someone to broker the mystery between them—priest or pastor, rabbi or imam, venerable master or fellow pilgrim—and enunciate the new status of the soul. Last but not least among the essentials is the task at hand: to get the dead and the living where they need to be. For the former that means the tomb or fire or grave or sea. For the latter it means to the edge of the life they will be living without the deceased, whose blessed body is consigned to the elements and whose soul is commended to God.... Resistance to going the full distance with the dead will occasionally be encountered from some crematoriums, which are not accustomed to people who want to stay for the firing up of the retort, and some cemeteries, which view trudging to the grave as an inefficient use of employee time or don't like the idea of families being present for the dirt being placed on the coffin in the grave.... You have been walking with this saint since the day of baptism; the least you can do is go all the way to the grave, to the end, with this child of God."