Columbarium
“We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.”
A columbarium is a sacred place. Communities have had places for burial near places of worship for centuries. A cemetery located on the same property as a place of worship is not uncommon in older cities or rural communities. Crypts, cemeteries, or a columbarium provided the living regular reminders of those who had gone before them.
The columbarium at Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church was built and dedicated in 1977. Reflecting on the role of the columbarium in the life of the community, Revered Clover Reuter Beal, Co-Pastor of Montview, shared how it provides a physical reminder of our beliefs. “Inside we're baptizing on the outside we're laying to rest. There is a sense of the expanse of one's life, from birth to death we belong to God.”
The Montview columbarium is integrated into a unified outdoor space including meditation gardens and a labyrinth. It provides a place for families to return and reflect on those they have loved and lost; and a place where neighbors regularly sit in silence or prayerfully walk the labyrinth. A team of dedicated volunteers provide gardening expertise and care for columbarium and an endowment fund was established to ensure the future care of this sacred space.
A columbarium offers a sacred place for the ashes of a loved one to be interred without the financial costs of a casket, cemetery plot, or headstone. There are both individual crypts and a common crypt in the Montview columbarium. Many interred at Montview were born and lived their entire lives in the Park Hill neighborhood. It is a sacred gift to have a final resting place nearby for families who have lived in and loved this neighborhood.
Rev. Reuter Beal shared that some who are interred in the columbarium were never a part of the Montview congregation but lived in Park Hill. “We are in such a disconnected culture, disconnected from our neighbors and disconnected from our history,” shared Beal. “Especially for people who are not a part of a church or religious community, they don't have a larger story. In some way being interred in Park Hill gives them a story.” Being interred in the Montview columbarium has often connected their families to a community of faith and their lives to a greater story.
Montview concludes their worship service on All Saints Day, celebrated the first Sunday of November, not with a benediction within the sanctuary, but with a liturgy outside in the columbarium. All those who have been interred in the last year are remembered. Rev. Reuter Beal shares the importance of the setting and the service, “It is a witness to the great cloud of saints that have gone before us, and who continue to hold witness for us.”
A columbarium is a physical reminder of the brevity and beauty of life. It provides a holy perspective for those who gather to worship and a quiet place for those who have lost those they love. A columbarium is a sacred place.
Thank you to Revered Clover Reuter Beal, Co-Pastor of Montview, for her conversation and contribution to this article.
