The Burial of the Dead

"Funeral sermons or funeral services shall not be introduced." -- Article 6.5, D.K.O. At one of the first synods of the Reformed Churches it was ruled that funeral sermons should be discontinued as soon as possible, and that localities which had not yet introduced them should not do so, in order to avoid the danger of superstition. Four years later, in 1578, this ruling was reaffirmed and in 1905 it became part of the established Church Order in the form that it appears above. In 1914, when...