Online Zoom Forum: Green Burials: Spiritual, Ecological, and Social Perspectives.
Date: Wednesday 29 January 2025.
Time: 7pm-9pm (UK time).
Description:
Format: There will be five talks, each of 12 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of discussion among the speakers and the chair, followed by Q & A.
Chair:
The Revd Bonnie Evans-Hills:
Bio: Bonnie Evans-Hills is a priest in the Scottish Episcopal Church and has considerable experience in inter-religious dialogue, working with organisations such as the EU Commission on Foreign Affairs & Security, the World Council of Churches, Churches Together in Britain & Ireland, the Anglican Communion, and the Anglican Mission organisation USPG (United Society for Partners in the Gospel). Bonnie has been involved in contributing to the UN Office for the Prevention of Genocide’s Global Plan of Action for Religious Leaders & Actors. She was recently awarded the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Speakers:
Elizabeth Fournier:
Title: Going Green: End of Life Options.
Description: Elizabeth Fournier, green mortician, eco-educator, and author of The Green Burial Guidebook will discuss home funerals, natural burials, and literally going out green in America.
Bio: Elizabeth Fournier has dedicated her 34-year funeral career to sustainable and affordable burials and funerals. Elizabeth runs a one-woman funeral service out of a repurposed goat barn in Boring, Oregon, where she uses traditional burial practices that are kinder to humans and the Earth. Elizabeth wrote The Green Burial Guidebook, gave a TEDx talk called, "Going Green: The Last Act of Environmental Volunteerism,” and is the voice of the autopsy exhibit in the forensic wing at the United States National Museum of Medicine. She worked with Herland Forest in Washington to steward the first natural organic reduction human composting.
Michelle Menter:
Title: The Power of Story, a Key to Falling in Love with Natural Burial.
Description: How burial stories help people reckon with mortality and make environmentally savvy burial arrangements.
Bio: Michelle Menter is the Executive Director of Greensprings Natural Cemetery Preserve in Newfield, NY.
Greensprings was the first green cemetery in New York State.
This 130 acre meadowland cemetery preserve is home to vibrant habitats and is a sanctuary for birds, butterflies and grief.
Rev’d David J. M. Coleman:
Title: Earth to Earth: Re-membering and Re-purposing a Wholesome and Compassionate Funeral Culture.
Bio: As a local Christian minister in North Wales, Brighton, and the West of Scotland, Rev David Coleman has conducted some hundreds of funerals since just before he was ordained in 1995. Most of those were arranged under pressure of time and circumstance, where a default option was chosen and there was seldom time or mental resources to consider greener options unless on the strict advance instruction of the deceased. It’s not for the pastor in those conditions to impose their preference, but with integrity and a commitment to the truth in love, to make the comfort and spiritual health of the bereaved a priority. His late wife’s coffin was of card, printed with pictures drawn by their children. He finds the preoccupation of old Scottish gravestones with ‘remembering you must die’ to be healthy compared with the morbid denial of our fragility and mortality imposed by a single-use culture.
Since 2018, David has been the only full-time ordained Environmental Chaplain (we think) in Europe, looking at all aspects of the enrichment and reintegration of Christian spirituality and theology with its often-obscured roots in a partnership with the Earth, of which our scriptures so profoundly remind us we’re always part. In this capacity he’s visited, encouraged and shared worship with a great diversity of communities from the Borders to Shetland. David is a Member of the Iona Community, with published liturgies and many visual contributions to Wild Goose Publications.
David is father to young adults Taliesin and Melangell, and partner to Karen.
Dr Johanna Adolfsson:
Bio: Johanna Adolfsson is a researcher and writer based in Stockholm, Sweden. She has a doctoral degree in geography with special emphasis on human geography from the Department of Human Geography at Stockholm University. She teaches courses in urban planning to Bachelor's and Advanced level students at Örebro University and Linköping University and advanced level courses in human geography at Stockholm University. Themes of courses include landscape geography, political ecology and qualitative methodology. In her research, Johanna has worked ethnographically with internal settlement in south Israel where she has focused her attention to the Bedouin sheep and goat grazing that has been directed to forests planted by the Jewish National Fund. Her interest in the political aspects of nature management has recently expanded to include ongoing changes to Swedish cemetery landscapes. In a recently finished research project, Johanna began exploring the trend of multi-functionality in urban cemeteries and in particular the entanglements of recreation, biodiversity and Muslim burial. She will continue this work in a two-year research project that will look into the response from the Church of Sweden to some of the religious requests from Muslim groups. The project begins in January 2025.
Dr Myra Giesen:
Title: Sacred, Social, and Sustainable: Some Thought on Burial Practices.
Description: Burial practices reflect diverse cultural worldviews, shaping how societies approach death, remembrance, and environmental responsibility. This talk will briefly examine how burial sites are regarded as sacred, historical, or communal spaces, highlighting how spiritual beliefs, ecological considerations, and social values intersect in these practices, offering insights into how beliefs and values shape our relationships with the deceased and the environment.
Bio: Myra is an anthropologist with experience in NAGPRA compliance for the U.S. government between 1993 and 2006, during which she developed expertise in the legal and ethical aspects of grave protection and collection management. Since moving to the UK in 2006, she edited the book Curating Human Remains: Caring for the Dead in the United Kingdom and authored the definition for "human remains" in the International Council of Museums’ Dictionary of Museology. These contributions reflect her commitment to advancing understanding and advocating for ethical standards in the treatment of human remains across cultural contexts. She has taught courses in human osteology, mortuary archaeology, and heritage management at Newcastle University. Recently, she launched a scoping project at Ballast Hills Burial Ground, a little-known and poorly understood burial site with over 40,000 burials. The project seeks to explore the site's history, significance, and archives, while giving voice to those buried or memorialised there, and engaging a wide range of stakeholders.
An archive recording will be made for the EICSP archive.
NB: There will be no refund if you cancel your booking.
Cost: By Donation:
Contact: Neill Walker, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
If you are having a difficulty paying by Paypal, then you can pay by bank transfer instead.
NB: you must also email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so we can send you the Zoom sign-in details.
Here are the bank transfer details:
Account Name: Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace
Bank: Bank of Scotland
Bank Address: Edinburgh Royal Mile Branch
Account Number: 06131159
Sort Code: 802000
Some international transfers also ask for an IBAN number:
The IBAN number:
GB70 BOFS 8020 0006 1311 59
BIC:
BOFSGB21168