Funerals at Good Shepherd
If you suffer a death in your family, please notify the parish office: 703.323.5400.
Click here for our Funeral Customary & Guidelines.
The ministry and care of grieving families is a priority for the Good Shepherd community. We care about your family, are eager to offer comfort, and stand ready to help you understand God’s love.
All funerals at Good Shepherd follow the rich memorial services found in The Book of Common Prayer, and our clergy will assist your family with the important details of memorial and burial, whether planning ahead or planning when a loved one dies unexpectedly.
Good Shepherd Memorial Garden
Built in 2004, The Memorial Garden at The Church of the Good Shepherd is intended as a place of peace and natural beauty. It is a setting in which cremains of those who have died are interred and perpetually cared for. The memorial Garden provides a place of remembrance, thanksgiving, and communion with all “the saints in light.” As such, it is also a quiet spot for prayer and reflection in an elegant and verdant corner of the church property.
Cremation is an appropriate and natural process accepted and approved by The Episcopal Church and interment in the Good Shepherd Memorial Garden offers and alternative to other burial customs. Ashes are buried directly into the soil in a biodegradable container. It is a place where nothing separates the return of our ashes to the earth.
Please contact the church office at 703-323-5400 for more information about the Memorial Garden.
An Easter Liturgy
The liturgy for the dead is an Easter liturgy. It finds all its meaning in the resurrection. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we too, shall be raised.
The liturgy, therefore, is characterized by joy, in the certainty that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, not height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This joy, however, does not make human grief unchristian. The very love we have for each other in Christ brings deep sorrow when we are parted by death. Jesus himself wept at the grave of his friend. So, while we rejoice that one we love has entered into the nearer presence of our Lord, we sorrow in sympathy with those who mourn.
– Book of Common Prayer pg. 507
