TABOR - Tradition and Contemporaneity in the Romanian Orthodox Church
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A few orthodox reflections on the incineration


 

This text talks about incineration, a practice which is in conflict with the Orthodox Church tradition. According to the orthodox tradition, a christian must be buried and this practice is legitimated by a number of biblical arguments, by the fact that the very Body of our Lord Jesus Christ was put on the grave, by the fact that human body will be ressurected, so it is valuable in that respect too, by the fact that bodies of certain Christians become relics, due to the holiness of their lives, by the fact that the dead body claims respect. Deliberately destroying the dead body through incineration and let its ash fly into the wind, can not constitute the end of a God`s creature. In the special attention that we give to the dead body of the faithful, we repeatedly recapture the divine mystery of the Resurrection.

Keywords: incineration, death, body, burial, resurrection


 

IGNACE PECKSTADT