SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 10:10–10:50 A.M., Bloedel Hall

A Sunday Forum with Dean Thomason

For several years we’ve invited every adult at Saint Mark’s, regardless of age, to engage in the Lenten spiritual practice of planning your funeral and to preparing (or reviewing) your will and estate plans. Making these plans now will be a priceless gift to your loved ones when the time comes. As Christians, we do not deny death as a reality of life, but we deal honestly with the stark truth that we all die. Lent is an especially appropriate time for this, and all are welcome to attend this Sunday Forum, offered between the 9 and 11 a.m. morning services in Bloedel Hall.

Resources for funeral planning are available at saintmarks.org/funeral and will be posted here as the event approaches. Contact Dean Thomason for more information: sthomason@saintmarks.org

Here are the documents regarding funeral planning that will serve as resources for you:

• Planning Your Funeral Guide (docx format)
• Planning Your Funeral Guide (pdf format)
• Funeral Planning Form (docx format)
• Funeral Planning Form (pdf format)
• Burial Rite: Suggested Readings from Scripture (pdf format) (You are not restricted to these readings, but they are especially appropriate.)

Once you have completed the planning forum, drop off a copy at the Dean’s office, where it will be kept on file, and held in confidence, until the time it is needed (hopefully a long time from now!). Of course, you can retrieve it, amend it, or replace it at any time (and many of us do).

Beginning last year, Dean Thomason broadened the invitation to also include preparation or review of your will. The Diocese of Olympia and the Cathedral Foundation have partnered with Freewill.com, a free online service that guides you, step by step, through the various decisions related to your will, including issues (such as the future of your digital files and online presence), which you may not have considered before. Once you have completed the process, Freewill.com generates a legal document that you can then review with your own lawyer.

The video below, from a program by the Foundation in November 2022, contains a demonstration of Freewill.com starting about one hour into the video, at 1:05:00.