A Service For Body Donors

by Katie Zavadski

Southwark Cathedral in London holds one annually:

For some people, donating their bodies for medical research is a way of telling the world that they do not want a religious ceremony or a funeral of any kind. The donor may be saying, in effect: “Once my body has served its main utilitarian purpose, let it serve one more purpose and then be disposed of quietly and anonymously…”  In fact, making a gift to medicine doesn’t preclude a dignified or religious act of disposal. As is explained by the London Anatomy Office, which serves the needs of seven medical schools, donated bodies will eventually be released, and loved ones then have a choice: they can either arrange a private funeral themselves, or allow the medical school to conduct an act of cremation at which a chaplain will conduct a short service unless otherwise requested.

Still, for many donors’ next of kin, the annual cathedral service seems to offer a welcome chance to say “farewell” and “thanks” in a beautiful and historically resonant place, where a religious community was established nearly a thousand years ago to meet the needs, both spiritual and medical, of both travellers and local people.