Memorial Garden Plaques for Your Columbarium Project
1. How many options are there?
2. How much does it cost?
3. Who does the work?
4. How can it be made easy?
5. How can we order and install the memorial?
6. What goes on the memorial?
7. How long does it take to get it delivered?
8. How can we make this simple?
Dealing with a Difficult Situation
Unfortunately, even in a small church there is someone going through a difficult situation and it is a blessing to that individual to know that there are people who care. That is why providing grief counseling at your church is such a wonderful ministry. I know that there are some church members who don’t think a columbarium program has a place at the church facility, but I just haven’t heard a good reason to agree with. In my opinion, it is completing the circle of life and who else would we want to help with that part of our life than our church community.
When a difficult situation enters our life, such as a death of a loved one, diagnosis of cancer, loss of a job, we have to determine how we will choose to handle it. We can handle it positively or negatively. We can stay in our bed and cry all day or we can know that how we perceive this difficulty now, we’ll probably perceive it differently later.
4 Different Items to Include in Your Columbarium
We have been talking about different items to include in your columbarium. An ossuary was suggested. If you remember an ossuary is a large underground vault that has an opening above ground. Cremated remains are poured down a cylinder into an underground vault and co-mingled with other cremated remains. A tribute tower or memorial wall is nearby for memorial plaques with the names of the deceased and the birth date and death date are on the plaques. Then we talked about including a Labyrinth. A labyrinth has only one path leading to the center and back out again with no dead-ends. One of our readers suggested using the columbarium as the walls of the labyrinth.
Should an Ossuary be a part of your Columbarium Program?
Recently we had a few churches asks us questions about including an ossuary in their columbarium design. Since I’ve only been a part of the Columbarium Designers, Inc. team a few years, I didn’t know what an ossuary was. Dave, who has been helping churches, cemeteries and organizations with their columbarium programs for over 30 year’s explained it to me.
What are the benefits of an Interior Columbarium?
Recently, we have received a number of questions concerning designing and installing a columbarium inside a church or an organization’s facility. The high density of a columbarium means that relatively little space is required. A suitable location can almost always be found. Many churches are finding areas that have no other use and the planning of and installation of a columbarium has been a very successful project. The opportunity to create a columbarium inside the church or an organization facility is a rapidly growing portion of the industry.
A columbarium inside opens up other options of materials that can be used since it won’t have to weather a storm and will provide a beautiful memorial.
An Exterior Columbarium or Interior?
Columbariums can be designed and installed almost anywhere. The high density of a columbarium means that relatively little space is required. A columbarium can be almost any size and can be put in areas you may not think to use. A church recently put niches behind their altar in a chapel. It works perfectly for them. Another church put a columbarium in their prayer garden, making it a place of reflection, prayer and a place to remember the loved ones of the church members who are memorialized there. There are endless options.
