St George’s Garden of Remembrance

Many churches, St George’s among them, have Memorial Gardens or Gardens of Remembrance, in which ashes are interred. These gardens are witness to the Christian belief in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to our assurance that we share in his resurrection to eternal life.

Relatives may choose to have the ashes of those who have died interred in St George’s Garden of Remembrance. In the Biblical concept of ‘earth to earth’ there is no difference in principle between the interment of a body or its ashes.

Christians believe our physical body is a temporary home for the soul. After death, we have a spiritual body. While we respect human remains, they are not seen as a continuation of the person we knew. That person is now living a new life in a different dimension.

Ashes are interred rather than scattered. We are not treating a body in a grave or ashes in the ground as a shrine for reverence. Interring ashes offers a location for the remembrance of loved ones.

The interment service follows the Prayer Book Service, with names recorded in a Memorial Book at the church and remembered annually close to the anniversary of the death at our Sunday service.

The ashes of many former parishioners and relatives, including those from St Phillip’s Memorial Garden in West Heidelberg after its closure, have been interred at St George’s.

The parish warmly commends the use of our Memorial Garden for the placing of the ashes of our loved ones