Love, Loss, and Lament
Memorial Service
Rev. Dr. Wanda Henry-Jenkins
Within the congregation at the General Conference 2024 are many, if not all, who have experienced multiple losses since the last gathering in 2021. Bereavement is vast and not limited to death. As expressed in many meetings people have faced financial, job, friends, and family losses (husbands, wives, parents, children, and lifelong friends). Loss produces grief which is emotional, mental, social and physical pain. This pain must be acknowledged and embraced in order for grievers to gradually begin the process of healing. The process of healing is mourning. Mourning allows the griever to express the pain, to receive and share compassion, consolation, and comfort from those around them.
On Saturday evening the lights suddenly dimmed softening the atmosphere drawing us from business to a sanctuary of sorrow seeking solace from God and each other. Bishop Belin reminded us that the most important opportunity of the evening was to recall and remember and Bishop Wicker those who have died. Memorial services are critical to acknowledging the legacy of a loved one, the importance of their life to us, and sharing the experience with others. It is the time to lament.
Lament is what we need to do to move forward creatively as learn to live in a new way with the ones who have made their transition from earth to eternal life. Bishops Zander opened with an invitation to the Spirit of the Living God to fall afresh on us. The hymn “Time is filled with swift transitions” was sung by all. Bishop Wright called us to worship reminding us that the dead in the Lord are blessed. Bishop Brookins softly drew us to breathe the spirit within and welcome the breath of the Lord to fall on. Her words of “Thanks for breath. Thanks for comfort. Be with us, sit with those who need sob out loud” were beautiful words of comfort and consolation. The comforting Scripture of 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 NRSV reminds us what we believe death is a passage and that one day we will be reconnected and reunited with our loved one, as well as with Jesus who will call us up to meet him in the heavens. Bishop Byfield displayed the video of some of those that have died. She reminded us that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. She led us in the litany of hope “Absent from the body” is to be “Present with the Lord.” This affirmed that death does not have the final say. Sing the Wondrous Love of Jesus was the closing hymn. Bishop Cousins prayed that our loved ones have become a member of the Great Cloud of witnesses.
Lament is biblical and allows Christians to acknowledge death and all losses. A third of Psalms, Jeremiah, and Job provides the words we can employ to accept and experience the reality of loss and embrace the grieve. It is also the means by which, mourners adjust to life without the physical presence of deceased loved ones, and adapt to a new life and move forward. Finally, lament is the means by which we invite God to help us with sorrow, and grow in our connectional relationship with God.
