For over 100 years, the world practices bidding farewell to the
deceased as a modern, ecologically clean and secure method. The first
crematories were built in 1875 in Italy by the combined efforts of
German and Italian engineers. During the beginning of the 20th century
of urbanization in European countries, the presence of more than
100,000 crematories in the populated settlements was considered a
sanitarian norm. Today, the crematories are spread in the United
States, Russia and it is obligatory in The South-Eastern countries of
Asia. In total, there are nine crematories in the CIS countries. As we
all know, there are no crematories in Armenia. There is not even a
corresponding law to this (we only have a propsed law with flaws) which
would constitute the funeral ceremony and the different ways of doing
that. But even if the law gets passed, are the traditional Armenian
people ready to support the implementation of that state program?
Finally, how wil the Armenian Apostolic Church respond to this?
The people aware of the first part of the question include owner of the
funeral bureau Artashes Gabrielyan who says that “many understand that
it is better to fill a pitcher with dust rather than burying the food
of deformed animals under the ground”. However, before looking at the
issue from a practical point of view, it is necessary to go further in
detail about crematories, present the advantages and disadvantages. In
any case, the law has to take into consideration the people’s freedom
of choosing the type of funeral service. It is known that the Russian
Orthodox Church and the Holy Patriarch of all Russians Alexi the 2nd
accepts the necessity of crematories in the city. Basically, cremating
does not change the traditional funeral: the compatibility of the two
rituals is possible. As custom, the relatives may visit the deceased
until the day of cremating. There is no exception for doing requiems.
After all this, the grave is transferred to the crematory and the body
gets buried in the cinerary. However, the evangelical does not bless
the grave. Thus, cremating has many advantages. It is the most hygienic
version of burying the deceased and it improves the city ecologically,
prevents any health problems of people visiting the cemetery and any
danger in life. The time foreseen for mineralizing the remains is
reduced from 50 years to 1 hour which means that the body is absolutely
safe. At any given time, the relative may move the urn wherever he or
she wants. This is not only a materialistic way of saving, but rather
it guarantees that the deceased will rest in peace.
Compared to the traditional funeral, cremating is two times cheaper (it
costs 1000 rubles in Russia, in other words, approximately $40 U.S.
dollars). Besides that, the columbary deceased are considered more
“democratic”. Despite who is buried in the given place, the unique
position and appearance of the deceased prevent the For
Armenia’s standards, where there are over 10 cemeteries (nearly 500
hectors of land); this can not be substituted due to the fact that it
economizes the few Armenian lands by providing an even more rational
use of land resources. Another problem for building a crematory has to
do with finances. Having a crematory is pretty expensive. First of all,
it requires having a special architectural plan and it is necessary to
import hearths. The best furnaces for crematories are produced by the
Czech “Tabo” brand name company. The latest “Tabo” furnaces are
automatic and the functioning is controlled by fax/modem. These
furnaces are the most ecologically clean but expensive ones.
Recently, in honor of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, the
“Tabo” brand name company granted the city its new style, ready made
furnace. The price of that is approximately $300 dollars. If we take
into consideration the fact that there is an average of 500 deaths in
Yerevan each month, this means that at least two crematories with
complexities will be needed to take care of the needs of the city.
Armenia will not agree to such elegance. Instead of this, it is
possible that Armenia will get more efficient Russian or Chinese
furnaces. We are already doing business when nothing is certain yet.
After all, there is a third problem. The so-called columbary (cinerary)
funerals require other absolute sanitary and esthetic conditions rather
than the conditions that our traditional cemeteries “enjoy”. We still
have to shape a new culture based on rituals and the underworld life.
We can move this issue to two different levels. The first is the
construction of the crematory which is dependent on the government’s
problems and the methods used for solving them. If the state wishes to
help the people with this phenomenon, which is strange for the people’s
psychology and the history of religion, then it has to have a basis and
an explanation, it has to have economic purposes, sanitary-epidemical
or simply psychological. However, this can never be accepted and
carried out because the terrible and disastrous phenomena. The Armenian
Apostolic Church has not made any official decision regarding the
cremation of the deceased and the given issue has not been discussed in
the Episcopal congress. The fact that the dioceses of the Armenian
Apostolic Church and the devout parishioners are spread out around the
world and the believers have settled in other countries where they have
applied cremating for many years has made the Church to make a
decision. Based on that decision, the evangelicals are allowed to do a
requiem before the cremating, however after the cremating, there is no
cemetery order and no blessing done, meaning that the order accepted by
the church does not function. Of course, this does not mean that it is
forbidden to pray for the deceased later on. Requiems can always be
done for the peace of the deceased’s soul and the mourning for the
relatives. Thus, based on the point of view of the Orthodox belief,
cremating is not acceptable and contrary to the Christian world
outlooks.
Clergyman T. VAHRAM MELIKYAN
Director of coordinating information