Church Burial

[vernonk]

How does a person qualify for being buried in a churchyard? Do they need to be religious, a member of that parish, a regular attendee at that church, or can a complete stranger from a different area who isn't eve religious qualify as it were?

[Sparkles62]

I could be completely wrong, but as far as i know, you just have to buy a burial plot.

[boxtops]

It depends entirely on the church and where you are. My mother wanted a certain place in our church which she rarely attended, and the vicar said that would have been OK (she died elsewhere in the end and we had a different burial). OH and I want our ashes to be buried in a particular churchyard elsewhere in the country that we have never attended, and we have just paid for a shared plot.

[ummmm]

Pay for a plot from the council.

Mines already booked...

[boxtops]

If it's for you, you need to go to the church in question and ask. Burial areas are often managed completely separately from the church attached to them.

[vakayu]

If you wanted a particular place then as suggested you would have to purchase a burial plot and in some places they are full or filling up very quickly,so the sooner the better.

[ummmm]

I should add...mine is booked in a graveyard, not a churchyard.

[vernonk]

What is the difference between a graveyard and a churchyard? presumably a graveyard is a burial site which doesn't have a church. Right?

[vakayu]

Usually a churchyard is adjacent or surrounding a church,so yes you're right,a cemetery can be anywhere.

[CheekyChops]

When my dad died a few months ago, he 'qualified' for burial in the local churchyard as he lived in the parish when he died. The house that he shared with my mum is up for sale and my mum was a bit worried that if she moved out of that parish, she would have to be buried elsewhere. The vicar said that as we now had a family member in the churchyard, my mum and also me and my brother could be buried there whether we lived in the parish or not.

My dad wasn't religious at all and had probably never attended that particular church, I know I'd never been in it before his funeral, despite living in that parish for 30 years!

[tamborine]

my MIL has inscribed her OHs gravestone with father of ......son, wife of tambo.

No way am I going there & I cant get my name removed.

[tamborine]

^^ & wife

[Barmaid]

I think the rules vary from parish to parish. I now that when my G uncle died recently, he had wanted to be buried in his home parish where his parents, siblings and a baby daughter are. Despite the fact that he had lived there all his life until a couple of years ago, it was refused.

[tamborine]

She's dead & 2 surviving bruvs object to any changes

[tamborine]

Remember Ruth Ellis (last hanged on 60s) her son hanged himself at her grave. He's buried with her.

[paddywak]

I've got a double plot bought in the local cemetery for myself and Trish. I don't believe in the after life but I do find comfort in being planted along side five generations of my family.

[Buenchico]

Prior to the Burial Laws Amendment Act 1880, parishioners could be buried in their parish churchyard only with a C of E ceremony; no other ceremony was permitted.

Following a row over the burial of an unbaptised two-year-old boy (from a Baptist family), at a churchyard just down the road from where I am now (which occupied the pages of the national pres for over a year and led to debates in Parliament) the law was changed so that anyone living within a parish now has the right to be buried within the parish churchyard (or burial ground) with a ceremony (or lack of one) appropriate to their own faith.

For anyone who wants to know the full history of the dispute, here's the link:
http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/akenham.htm