A Memorial Service is a celebration of life and a spiritual practice of being together in grief. In Unitarian Universalist congregations, these services are developed by the family of the deceased and the presiding minister to specially honor the memory of the individual.
Members* of Countryside Church UU can count on us to provide a welcoming space to celebrate the life of your loved one. Members in good standing, their spouse/partner, and their non-adult children are granted reduced fees for their memorial service. Countryside’s current minister performs memorials for church members; former ministers are not involved in officiating rituals as stated in the UU Ministers Association (UUMA) covenant. To schedule a memorial service, the first step is to contact the minister and the church office.
For those who are not members, Countryside Church UU can provide a welcoming space to celebrate the life of your loved one. Our minister has the right of first refusal for any services held at our congregation. Often, they are not available to officiate memorial services for nonmembers. If our minister is not available, we can provide a list of Unitarian Universalist officiants who might be available. Our minister would need to approve any outside officiant. If you are interested in holding a Memorial service at Countryside Church UU, please contact the church office who can look at available dates with you and put you in touch with our Ceremony Coordinator.
*a member is someone who has signed the membership book and has an operating pledge of record and has made a contribution toward that pledge within the previous 12 months or has been granted an exemption
Memorial Planning Guide
- Call or send an email to both the minister and to the church office to schedule the service. People often choose a Saturday or Sunday afternoon several weeks after their loved one’s death. People often need to check with family coming from out of town, so let us know if you need to do that. (You can say something like “we’d like the memorial on a weekend within the next month, but it can’t be ___ date,” or “we would like to wait until the spring: can you suggest a date?”)
- We will need to confirm the minister’s and the Ceremony Coordinator’s availability and check the building schedule before we finalize the date, so please wait for our confirmation before publicizing the service.
- While you’re waiting for confirmation of the date, please begin filling out our memorial service planning form: https://ccuu.breezechms.com/form/Memorial-Planning
- Schedule a meeting with the minister to plan the service
