Church services shall not be conducted for funerals.
In the liturgy of the Church of Rome there is an official funeral
service complete with a special celebration of the Mass, as sort
of a sermon and prayers for the rest of the soul of the deceased,
while after having been sprinkled with ‘holy water’, the deceased
is buried in ‘consecrated earth’.
The objection of the Reformed Churches to this custom is the
–historical – reason for the inclusion of this article.
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No objections can be made against the local minister conducting the funeral of members of his congregation. It belongs to his task to comfort according to everyone’s needs (Form for the Ordination of Minister of God’s Word).
Burying the dead is a biblical tradition. Cremation originates in heathendom, and is in contradiction with our belief that we ‘sow’ our deceased until the day resurrection (1 Corinthians 15: 42-44).