The dedication of the Memorial Garden, November 1985

The Hymn of Creation sculpture at the enterance to the Garden

The cross given in rememberance of The Rev. Quarterman

A view of the Memorial Garden from the walkway to Lindenwood University

Memorial Garden

The creation of the Trinity Memorial Garden, which is located behind the church just back of the Altar, began with the Gallicano family's request that memorial gifts for Charles C. Gallicano, whose Memorial Eucharist was held on September 23, 1984, be made to the Trinity Episcopal Church for such a garden.

Between December 1984 and May 1985, the committee determined the garden location and a policy for internment (including a map to pinpoint each location). Having considered and then rejected the idea of a columbarium, the committee decided to use biodegradable containers which would be interred in the garden grounds. The committee made these decisions after several visits to existing memorial gardens in the St. Louis area and after consultation with the Bishop and his staff.

In June 1985, the committee called the first open meeting of the parish for the purpose of presenting the plans for the garden. This statement of principles was presented: The Christian view is that after death, the body is no longer the person, or all that is left of the person. Instead, the person is finished with this body and lives with Christ. Bodies, having served as a 'temple of the Holy Spirit' (St. Paul), are to be treated with reverence and respect. Because of our belief in the resurrection we can say with quiet confidence in the burial service: 'In sure and certain hop of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to Almighty God our brother N , and we commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.'"

At meetings in 1985, the committee chose a theme from Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3, to be used in the brochure being prepared: "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens." The the final version of the policies and procedures were presented to the Vestry for approval. These policies and procedures are in the Memorial Garden brochure available in the church office.

The implementation of the plans then proceeded. The statue of St. Francis of Assisi was installed in 1992. On September 11, 1994, a Memorial Garden Cross for the The Rev. Quarterman was dedicated.

The dedication of the Garden and the first internment of ashes occurred on November 3, 1985 with the memorial services for Charles Gallicano and John Standring.

The walnut stand, designed and made by Ben Bright to hold the Book of Remembrances, was installed in the Narthex on July 15, 1987. Valeria Bartlett laid out the two flower beds in the garden. The columns which form the support for the wrought-iron fence surrounding the garden carry the engraved names of those who are interred in the garden as well as those wishing to be remembered or who have reserved spaces for future interment. The appearance of a name does not necessarily mean that the ashes of the person listed are actually interred in the garden, since only one may use the garden as a memorial but have the interment in another location.

Parts of this article were written by Howard A. Barnett
All Saints Day, November 1, 1995

The Christian Idea of Cremation

"When God gives us life in this world be gives us a body, and this marvelouis organism which God has created with such infinite skill...with such infinite love is God's - in life and in death. Therefore we treat the dead body reverently, not simply our of respect for the departed person, bu out of reverent aws in the presence of God's handiwork.

"But we cannot preserve something that no longer exists. After death, the body is materially a quantity of matter; and we know that matter, as such, is ultimately indestructible. In cremation, the matter is transmusted into other elements; it is not destroyed.

"We may regard this present body of ours as the seed which God planted on earth. Looking at it, we cannot guess fro its appearance what is to come. But we know God's plan and purpose. God is using our present life in the physical body asthe seed of our full-grown, completed, perfected life which is tobe ours in eternity. Without this present body of ours we could not begin to live; and that is what we are doing now - beginning to live; even as the planted seed is the plant that is to come - beginning to live.

"Therefore after death this present body is no longer essential to our continuing life, and what happens to it cannot affect the new life in the new kind of body.

"Our beloved departed are in God's hands, in death as in life, whatever befalls their mortal bodies which by God's mercy they have outgrown.

(From the pamplet: "Is Cremation Christian?" by Carroll E.Simcox, Forward Movement Publications, Cincinnati, 1979)