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Church of England looks at ‘human composting’

Currently, people in the UK can only legally choose to have a cremation or burial - kodachrome25
Currently, people in the UK can only legally choose to have a cremation or burial - kodachrome25

The Church of England could consider “human composting” at Christian funerals to help meet its net zero target.

Bishops are considering establishing a consultation group to assess the “theological considerations” of alternative means to dispose of human bodies.

Currently, people in the UK can only legally choose to have a cremation or burial. But human composting and water cremation, while not used in Britain, are increasingly popular around the world amid a desire for environmentally conscious funerals.

Human composting, a process in which microbes convert a deceased body into compost, is not legal in the UK. The process was legalised in New York State in January.

There is no law against resomation, also known as water cremation, in the UK. The process works by disposing of human remains using lye and heat, but no water firm has granted permission for its drains to be used, which would allow human remains to end up in the sewage system.

Written question to Synod

The bishops’ announcement comes after the General Synod, the Church of England’s legislative body, voted in February 2020 in favour of setting a target to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.

In a written question to the Synod before this month’s conference, which started on Monday, the Rev Canon Andrew Dotchin, of the St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Diocese, asked what the Church’s plans were for the rising popularity of alternate methods of disposing of the deceased.

He asked: “Bearing in mind the Church of England’s care for the bereaved, as well as our commitment to net zero carbon together with the environmental costs of current and future means for the disposal of human remains, are there any ‘theological objections’ to either resomation or human composting?”

He also asked whether there were any pastoral recommendations “for the reverent care of human bodies regardless of the manner of their disposal”.

Replying on behalf of the chairman of the House of Bishops, the Rt Rev Dr Michael Ipgrave OBE, Bishop of Lichfield, said: “There has not been any formal theological consideration of either resomation or human compositing.”

The bishop also suggested that Canon Dotchin, the Synod’s representative on the Churches’ Funerals Group, could help to organise “a small consultation… to look at this question in more detail and with ecumenical input”.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who died in December 2021, reportedly requested cremation by aquamation, or alkaline hydrolysis. This is a water-based process considered an eco-friendly alternative to traditional cremation.