“Green Funeral” is the umbrella term for a number of practices that strip away the artifice of the modern funeral industry and that actually bring us closer to the experience of death, make it more environmentally sound, and more meaningful. Home funerals and green burial are two of these practices that we will be exploring in this workshop.

Home funerals are a return to a time before funeral directors, when families kept their loved one’s bodies at home, bathing and dressing the deceased’s body themselves.  Did you know that it is still legal in almost every state to do this? We will screen a documentary that originally aired on PBS called, “A Family Undertaking” which tells the stories of several families who made the decision to keep their loved one’s body at home after death and of the deep meaning that they derived from this experience.

We will also be engaging in conversation about green burial, what it is, and where it is currently available.   Information and resource lists will be available to help people find support for any of the practices they might be interested in.

The workshop will be facilitated by Carin Bonifacino, a graduate of the Open Center’s “Art of Dying” certificate program in New York City, and a second-year seminary student at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary, also in New York City.

Watch the trailer for the documentary