James Olson

A Connecticut Yankee at the Gates of Heaven: United Church of Christ Death Rites in Connecticut in the Twenty First Century James Olson

This work examines the rites that members and churches of the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ perform when a member of the community dies. A distinction between a ?funeral? and ?memorial service? is established, with a funeral defined as a rite provided by the Church at the death of a Christian that is both a rite of passage for the dead and a service of the worship of God for the living, and a memorial service identified as a communal gathering that focuses more on eulogizing and remembering the deceased and less on the overt worship of God. The work examines over 300 services for the deceased performed over the last five years, including the hymnody, Scripture and service order, and makes some generalizations. Finally, a new set of rites are created, using both information gained from the study, and some new work by Dr. Olson. Further work examining these same questions in areas and denominations beyond one Conference of the United Church of Christ is planned, and relates to the larger societal question of how and what we do when someone dies. The question in our increasingly secular and individualized society is a complex one.