Sacred Crossings is a Los Angeles-based company offering ministerial services, education and guidance to families wishing to create green, cost-effective and deeply meaningful funerals at home.
Caring for our loved ones between the time of death and burial or cremation, is an ancient tradition that can be traced to earliest civilizations. During the past 100 years however, this once family-directed tradition has been gradually taken over by professional funeral directors.
Today, having lost the comforting rituals surrounding the death of a loved-one, we are often left feeling helpless and overwhelmed. Fearful of a process we know little or nothing about, we surrender the responsibility of after-death care to those who ‘know what to do.’
Our loved-one is taken away and refrigerated while documentation is prepared. If we request a viewing, embalming with toxic chemicals is encouraged and often enforced by the funeral home. The body is then laid in impersonal and unfamiliar surroundings where we are invited to visit under restricted conditions.
Sadly, we have become detached from the most poignant time in the circle of life. We have forgotten how precious it is to claim a final period of intimacy in a sacred space amid loving friends and family members. We have forgotten the cultural and religious reasons for sitting in vigil with a beloved, and the profound opportunity for healing and closure this ritual provides.
Sacred Crossings empowers families to reclaim this lost art. By caring for the body at home for a period of one to three days, friends and family members have the time, space and privacy to process feelings, honor religious customs, be supported by the community, and begin the healing process.
Sacred Crossings is a non-denominational service without cultural or religious discrimination. While it is best to begin funeral planning in advance, we can help a family at any time.
Contrary to what many people assume, children, when properly guided, readily accept the death process and willingly, even joyfully, participate in home funerals.
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Reclaiming the lost art and healing ritual of a home funeral
