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In reply to the discussion: NY shuts down 10,000 person wedding as Cuomo reveals new COVID-19 plan [View all]moriah
(8,311 posts)... and she died in June, I think it's not unreasonable to ask that you either have a smaller wedding if you must marry right away (then have the big celebration later), or delay such a large wedding.
Fortunately my mother's having converted as an adult to the Episcopal church (confirmation and everything, even did lay Eucharistic ministry since she already worked in a hospital) and having bought a spot in their columbarium answered many questions for us about what we would need to do (her death was not from COVID-19, at least not directly, but because of prevention protocols we could not participate in her care and she was never told directly that she was dying -- by the time that staff member could get to her, her mental status had deteriorated beyond where they felt her competent to make her own decisions).
I feel for those whose faith traditions do not accommodate things like cremation, and while it has been agony to not have the closure of a funeral... her extended family includes other older people, some on immunosuppressants. It wouldn't be safe for them to attend as most live rurally and are attempting the social isolation only people who live 30 minutes from a town with a chain grocery store can.
Plus, well, Mom's role as a lay Eucharistic minister and our experience with being forced through long Baptist sermons and complementing how well the undertaker did (Mom *specifically* did not want a viewing, well, thank goodness for us) makes me want to show that side of her family the full funeral rites of the faith she came to as an adult. She didn't tell us exactly how she'd want an Episcopal service to go, but when we found her Books of Common Prayer, she'd circled the readings she wanted in her paperback version. And until it's safe to share the common cup, the local diocese is not allowing the full Eucharist.
When they deem it safe for people to share a common cup, it will be safe enough for the people she loved and who loved her to celebrate her life without risking joining her prematurely.