Officiant:

We give our dead
To the orchards
And the groves.
We give our dead
To life.

[pause]

Death
Is a great Change—
Is life’s greatest Change.
We honor our beloved dead.
As we mix their essence with the earth,
We remember them,
And within us,
They live.

Congregation:

We remember.
They live.

Officiant:

Darkness
Gives shape to the light
As light
Shapes the darkness.
Death
Gives shape to life
As life
Shapes death.
God
And the universe
Share this wholeness
Each
Defining the other:
God
Gives shape to the universe.
As the universe
Shapes God.

[moment of silence]

We have lived before
We will live again
We will be silk,
Stone,
Mind,
Star,
We will be scattered,
Gathered,
Molded,
Probed.
We will live,
And we will serve life.

Congregation:

We will shape God
And God will shape us
Again,
Always again
Forevermore … Forevermore.

Officiant:

God is Change,
And in the end
God prevails.