“The Christian church has always been cognizant of the need to prepare believers to face dying in a manner fitting to their essential nature as creatures of God – as being already dead, buried, and raised to new life in Christ through baptism, and sustained in that new physical existence by the Eucharist (Lord’s Supper) until called by their creator to the life of the resurrection. That commitment to provide for a good dying has taken different forms throughout history, and the appropriate “art of dying well” has always been clearly articulated – until (post) modern times. Today we find that Christians have ceded to others the scenario for dying; the church no longer has much to say or ways to say convincingly those things it wishes to say.” (Speaking of Dying: Recovering the Church’s Voice in the Face of Death, Fred Craddock, p xvii)
What, if anything, have you heard about dying from the church? Who has taught you the most about what dying might be like for you and others? What is something you believe to be true about a “good dying”?