Excerpts from
The
See also Memorial Services (page 21) and Appendix II: Guidelines for the Use of the Burial Ground.
Memorial services are under the care of Ministry and Worship, which keeps in its files a set of guidelines, useful information, and practical suggestions that may be helpful to consider in planning a memorial meeting. For other help available from the Meeting, see Burial Ground (page 49), Memorial Minutes (page 29), Care and Counsel (page 6), and Appendix II-Guidelines for the Use of the Burial Ground.
A folder giving information about Quaker funerals for attenders at memorial meetings has been written by Ministry and Worship; it can be personalized as desired (3/98).
Meeting members and attenders are invited to register their wishes about funeral arrangements and memorial services with Care and Counsel and fill out the new �Information Sheet of Friends� end of Life Wishes.� See also Personal Files (page 29).
Our policy is to not record memorial services. Recording should be done only in exceptional cases and by request of family members. (Policy set by meeting for business on recommendation of Ministry and Worship 1/95.)
When a Meeting member dies, Care and Counsel writes a memorial minute or finds someone to do it. It is read at meeting for business, entered in the minutes, and included in the next Newsletter; a copy is given to the History and Records Committee for the Memorial Book (4/05). If the person was well known in Quarterly Meeting, the Clerk may forward the minute to the next Quarterly Meeting business
meeting where it will be read and entered in the Quarterly Meeting minutes. A memorial minute may be written for a non-member the Meeting feels close to and in contact with (12/94).
The History and Records Committee keep a loose-leaf album of memorial minutes and other material about members who have died with archives in the library.
Appendix II: Guidelines For The Use Of The Burial Ground
Taken from two drafts dated 4/5/83 and modified according to Care and
Counsel�s recommendation to meeting for business 10/97.
Burial in the Meeting burial ground is for members of Mt. Toby Meeting and their immediate families within one generation (i.e., spouse, parents, and children), and for locally resident members of other Friends' meetings who have been active in Mt. Toby Meeting. Any exceptions, as well as any other immediate decisions about burial, will be made by one or more available members of Care and Counsel. In view of the urgency and uniqueness of each decision, no exception to the eligibility rule is to be later construed as a precedent that encourages subsequent exceptions.
Care and Counsel
(1) provides counseling and ministry at the time of death or burial;
(2) determines eligibility for and assignment of plots;
(3) maintains records of burials;
(4) fulfills any legal responsibilities for oversight. Care and Counsel names two of their members as Burial Ground Caretakers.
Ministry and Worship has oversight of memorial services and provides assistance in their planning.
Grounds Committee is responsible for maintaining the burial ground and may use funds given to the Meeting for burial and the burial ground. There is no planting in the burial ground.
Location: The burial ground is a plot of land 70' by 150' located southeast of the meetinghouse as shown in a plan submitted to the Town of Leverett.
Plots: Each grave plot will be 6' by 12'. By law, graves must be dug 5' deep (to the bottom of the coffin). In case of cremation, grave plots may be used for the ashes of more than one person. Members of the same family may choose to have their ashes buried in the same plot. Tops of containers for ashes must be deep enough for markers to be placed above them. No plot may be reserved except for a single plot for the spouse of someone already buried. The plots will be numbered in accordance with the plan submitted to the Town of Leverett.
Plan: The plots are laid out north to south. The long side of a plot is roughly parallel to the highway. The burial ground will accommodate 112 graves in four double rows of 28 graves each. There are three 5� paths between the sections of double rows. Two rows, plot nos. 1 through 28, were marked in May 1986.
Grave markers: There will be no standing markers or headstones ,only flat markers about 1' by 2'. Arrangements for markers are made by the family through a monument dealer, who will install them. Markers are, of course, optional.
Charges: There will be no charge for a burial plot, but families will be responsible for expenses of burial and other funeral arrangements. The Care and Counsel will suggest a suitable donation to the burial ground fund, which will pay for the maintenance of the burial ground and associated expenses.
The Caretakers (members of Care and Counsel) assign plots and keep a record of burials and a plan of the grave plots. They return the burial permit to the town official who issued it. Caretakers are legally responsible for being sure that the legal documents for cremation and burial have been obtained, although the funeral director usually obtains them.
See also Burial Ground, Records of the Meeting, and Memorial Services.