THE MEMORIAL GARDEN
“Loving and gracious God,
we pray to you for those we love, but see no longer:
Grant them your peace;
let light perpetual shine upon them;
and, in your loving wisdom and almighty power,
work in them the good purpose of your perfect will;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen”
Book of Common Prayer, page 504
The Memorial Garden is the final resting place for the ashes of a number of parishioners and their families. Located on the far western portion of the church grounds, the garden is a place for quiet reflection and prayer.
Christians have always tended with respect the mortal remains of those who have died, while at the same time affirming that our hope is not in our mortal bodies but in the eternal God who gives at death a new, glorioous body appropriate to the eternal realm. Thus, life in Christ is not quenched by death but freed for its consummation and perfection in God.
We believe that Good comes to us through the material and physical. The supreme expression of this is God becoming human in the Incarnation. We believe in having a physical place to come for spiritual refreshment, a place where ashes, the cremated remains of God's mortal children, are laid to rest. Our Memorial Garden provides a place of solitude in a natural setting that is especially appropriate and comforting to those who mourn and remember.
Just such a sacred space was created at St John on the Mountain for the interment of ashes of our parishioners and their families.
The beautifully landscaped garden provides a peaceful place for committal services and a quiet place to visit. The cremated remains are interred into the soil of the Garden, where they lie in perpetuity as an integral part of this tranquil place.