Anglican church bans immediate burial of relatives, sets 2-week minimum timeframe
The Diocese of Okene, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) in Kogi state, has barred members from burying their departed relatives immediately, insisting that a minimum period of two weeks must elapse before any burial arrangement is concluded.
This is contained in a communique reached at the 1st Session of the 6th Synod of the Diocese, jointly signed by the Chairman and Bishop, Dr Emmanuel Onsachi, alongside the Clerical Synod Secretary, Venerable Godwin Omanayin. The Synod held at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Obeiba, Ihima, from Friday 7th to 9th August 2026.
According to the resolution, “in view of the need to continue to allow members of the Church to have enough time to prepare for and organize befitting burial programmes to honour their departed parents, it is therefore resolved that a minimum period of 2 weeks be allowed for them to prepare for the burial arrangements as our members should also be encouraged that no evil consequence would follow such resolve for the bodies of their departed parents through embalming.”
Some people had buried their parents within one week or less than two weeks of their deaths, following parental instructions for their remains not to be kept in the morgue for over a week or several days. But the diocese has now said that such instructions given by the deceased while alive, must be discountenanced, saying there are no consequences for not honouring the instructions of their deceased parents. It said the move will allow the families to give a “befitting” burial to their departed, without adding a caveat for those who have the means to carry out the burials within a week.
The Diocese, in a related resolution, banned the use of externally sourced undertakers during burial programmes across the Diocese. Instead, the Church directed that the Boys Brigade in various parishes be engaged for such duties, “as the Diocese does not want a parallel body to be involved in our burial programmes whose activities may be in conflict with our Church norms.”
Beyond burial matters, the Synod also took decisions on the Diocese’s economic and spiritual growth. It resolved that “the Church shall put in place a policy for determining, from year to year, the areas in which to invest and shall identify investment opportunities in which members can be encouraged to participate, including the provision of soft loans for such purposes, in order to improve their economic well-being.”
On tithing, the Diocese directed that “members in the diaspora should remit at least 50% of their tithe to their home churches for the year to support the growth of the Church,” adding that the approach to achieving this “shall be pastoral, in order to encourage compliance by our members.”
The Synod equally addressed hosting logistics for future gatherings, resolving that “the items of food to be provided at Synod shall be clearly set out, and each Archdeaconry shall be informed of the food items it is expected to provide, for the purpose of relieving the host church of the burden of hosting the Synod.”
On evangelism and membership growth, the Diocese charged its churches “to embark on intentional and aggressive evangelism, as a mission drive, with the aim of increasing membership in our churches.”
Credit: Vanguard Newspaper.
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