|
The Orthodox Pages
|
||||
Back
   |
|
|||
|
|
Is it come practice for the Orthodox Church to charge a widow and grieving mother x2 for a double same day funeral ?
Answer to Question 578 Because the Orthodox church is not run by any central administration, each diocese is independent and free to apply what charges she deems reasonable so no there is no common practice. In Limassol the charge is 100 euros and is added on to the Funeral Directors costs so most churches don't involve themselves with asking for church costs from the grieving relatives. The only time the church gets involved is when the burial is at a local cemetery belonging to the church (other than the main Limassol cemetery). In villages charges are at the discretion of the local priest. In my village we never ask for church costs for funerals. If the family ask how much they owe we tell them 50 euros and if they don't ask then we do not follow them up to pay anything. In the case you mentioned of a double funeral, I would have thought that a single charge would have been more than adequate seeing that the church is being used only once and there is no extra time or costs to the church. But to be fair, in most town churches the charges are made by the church committee and not by the priest himself. It could be that the person asking for payment simply thought that there were two funerals so it is logical to charge for two without asking advice from the priest if it was more correct to make a single charge
|
|
||
