Creating a Holy Burial Site for Our Members

Keiko de Giles
March 2011

Left: Regional President Yong-cheol Song and UK national leader Simon Cooper plant a tree to mark the opening of the Holy Oak Memorial Woodland Burial Site in southwestern England; Right: Volunteer members erect the fence around the site

Keiko de Giles has managed church property in Stanton Fitzwarren, England, for more than twenty years.

Families in Korea typically have their own plot of land where the bodies of their family members are interred in close proximity to each other. Most Korean church members follow this tradition. True Parents' family site, located in the hills in Paju, an hour north of Seoul, is called the Wonjeon. In addition to the graves of True Family members that have ascended, a section of the Wonjeon is reserved for the graves of some early church members.

In 2004, a consecrated Unification Church cemetery, known as the "Second Wonjeon" was opened not far from Seoul. Some Korean members have chosen to be buried there because it is holy ground. There are Unificationist cemeteries in Japan and the United States (see Today's World July 2005 issue); and as of last November -- thanks to the efforts of one sister in particular -- also in Britain. Here, she relates what it took.

Our Church in the United Kingdom recently obtained permission to develop the first Unification Church cemetery in Europe, the Holy Oak Memorial Woodland Burial Site, for our members in the UK.

On November 18, more than forty brothers and sisters descended on the tiny village of Stanton Fitzwarren, which consists of some two hundred houses, several hours' drive from London, to witness the dedication of the Memorial Woodland Burial Site as our national Wonjeon.)

Our burial site consists of an acre of land in the corner of a field overlooking the village. We are planning to provide for three hundred burials, although there might well be space for considerably more. The site is situated on land that Henry and Avril Masters donated to our movement many years ago and it adjoins the holy ground that True Father created in 1974. Oak trees were planted at that time.

We have chosen to have a memorial woodland burial ground with headstones laid flush with the ground, trees planted, and benches provided. This is because it will be most easily assimilated into the landscape.

Some seven or eight years ago, I felt inspired by these words from the book The Tradition:

Father has indicated in several of his speeches that blessed couples should be buried in "holy ground." In the future, our national movement will buy parks (with hills or small mountains, if possible) in regions or states for the purpose of burying Unification Church members. Later, these areas will be designated as "holy grounds."

At a meeting in 2004, the idea of the Memorial Woodland Burial Site was discussed and a tentative proposal was made to the planning officer of the local government authority. The idea was not rejected. The plan was further discussed with members at our UK church headquarters in London. With their support the project began to take shape.

I thought to myself, even though the church owns a beautiful area of land adjacent to a holy ground, we don't have a "Wonjeon."

I sought the help of Mr. and Mrs. Masters and others, and we formed a small committee. We visited different memorial sites and talked with those responsible about how they had developed their plans.

It took us more than six months to choose the right site for the cemetery. We considered five different pieces of land. It had to be a location that would not upset local residents. There had to be easy access to the site and it could not disturb the natural amenities. From the outset, we had in mind the peaceful spot next to the holy ground but access to the site was a big problem. In the end, an approach along an existing farm track proved viable.

I visited two Japanese burial sites in 2007 and spoke to Mr. Hiro Tomani who is responsible for the first church burial site in Japan. His father had owned the land and developed the site himself before his son took over. His efforts moved me very much and my determination to create something similar in the United Kingdom became stronger.

As a church business, we felt that we should not be a financial burden to the movement. The headquarters wasn't sure the idea was financially viable. Moreover, the planning officers requested many professionally produced reports -- a geophysical survey, a wildlife survey, environmental health, water resources, and so on, and these were expensive to have done (the survey of the effect on water resources of having the burial site there cost £10,000, which is more than $15,000). We also needed to show that we had access to the highway suitable for a hearse and that we had the support of the village residents.

Because it was going to cost money to get the project underway, we asked the UK members if they would like to support the project by paying ahead of time for plots. I asked members to sign a form which contained the words "I would like to have a space in the Holy Oak Memorial Woodlands and agree to pay the deposit of £100 ($155) and start monthly installments when planning permission has been granted." A plot is £500 ($800), considerably less than other burial plots in the UK. We received about sixty replies, so I made a financial plan to show that we could support the project financially and not burden the estate business we run for the benefit of the church. We have almost recovered the cost. Any income above costs will help with the upkeep of the burial site and holy ground.

If we hadn't opted for the prepayment plan, the income from the plots would have been spread over twenty to fifty years, and the estate business would have been financially burdened.

After many meetings with professionals over a four-year period and a campaign of leafleting in the village, we finally achieved a positive outcome. A preliminary application was submitted in December 2009 and all seemed to be going well. However, when the official planning application was submit- ted in April 2010, the chairman of the local parish council changed his mind and started to speak against the proposal. Also, a few weeks before the public meeting, an article containing comments that the local parish council chairman, the local vicar and a villager had made appeared in the local newspaper.

At the public planning meeting in June, several elected officials began to make spurious objections but a Jewish lady councilor spoke up saying that a small religious organization should have the right to have its own final resting place. When it was time to vote, more than half the counselors supported us. We were prepared to go to appeal but unbelievably the application had been approved! You can imagine our joy. I felt spiritually that it was so important to have our own burial place, and in spite of the difficulties and the process taking so many years, the application had gone through.

Preparations for a burial site are very new to all of us -- from the paper work to the ground work -- but with help all around, we have now finished the preparations. Other members have joined the committee to give their support. In October, a group of local families, parents and children had a very enjoyable experience working together on two beautiful autumn days to erect a post and rail fence around the site.

We are happy to have this special place where we can place the bodies of our loved ones, and where their graves will be looked after for generations to come. We would like to be able to create a special day when the consecration of this ground can be celebrated annually

We hope that our experience in creating this Unificationist burial site may inspire members in other countries to think of making and maintaining their own.