Call to Glory

Today we attended an African funeral somewhat modified to be fitting for a member of the Church. This was a Church employee who worked with seminaries and institutes. He had high blood pressure and that is what got him. He seemed healthy, and it happed suddenly. We also know his wife who works in the same office building. He died in January but the funeral and burial was delayed until the family was able to make arrangements and permit the family time to get the word out to extended family and friends. It is common to wait an average of three months. Below is the announcement and some details about the funeral. You see these kinds of postings all over the place on walls and fences in neighborhoods, and of course on bulletin boards. This one was downstairs in our apartment building entry.

One thing we noticed shortly after we arrived in Ghana is that funerals are quite big events and can be quite costly. They basically are celebrations of the person’s life. One nice thing they do to show respect to the person is attend the church of the deceased the Sunday following the funeral. It is a great opportunity to explain the Gospel to nonmembers. Today the young missionaries assigned to the area were at a table at the entry to the stake center answering questions and handing out probably hundreds of Books of Mormon. Attendees are open to learning about the life of the dearly departed in this manner.

Funerals may last all-day and accompanied by (loud) music and large crowds. Often the event is held in tents set up for that purpose and can last several day. This one was held at the stake center on the temple grounds. People wear certain colors based on the circumstances surrounding that person’s death. You can read about it on the Internet. We generally see people dressed in black, brown, or white. The majority of those attending today wore black and white as you will see in the pictures.

We were quite surprised at the size of the crowd attending today’s funeral. As far as we know there was nothing special about this brother such as status in the community like a chief or civic leader, yet the attendance at this funeral was quite large. The stake center was filled to capacity and more. Afterward, people stayed and roamed the beautiful temple complex grounds. The property is gated, so this was a special chance for many who are curious to be able to enter the grounds. We estimate that there were approximately 2,000 people in attendance.

Back to the comment about quite expensive, they announced at the end of the services that everyone was welcomed back after the interment for some refreshments. It amounts to a meal. In order to help defray the cost they traditionally have a donation box out for people to contribute toward the expenses.

This woman was weeping and talking to the casket in the hearse before it pulled away. Below is the lovely dresses they wear.

Here’s Gordon in the shade while I snap photos, thinking about trying to be patient with my desire to get it on film. It’s a pretty sunny day.

This is the door of the temple where it looks like a curious visitor is having someone from inside the temple explain to him that only worthy members can enter, so he can’t have a tour of the inside of the temple!

Parking at our chapels and stake centershere is not very large because most people can’t afford a car and come by taxi or tro-tro. That being the case cars were crammed into the temple complex and double parked, parked where there was space and double parked outside the gates on the sidewalk. We haven’t seen that many vehicles on the temple complex ground during the year we’ve been here.

There were a few men and women dressed in the native attire but generally speaking most people dress the way westerners do. These people are waiting for the food to be given out.

This is a picture of the funeral program. It is more of a booklet, and must be a big expense. Inside are tributes from the wife, children, in-laws, church, and friends. Evidently it is normal for these to be read during the funeral. They announced that in the interest of time not all would be read, but someone read the wife’s and the children came up and read theirs. They are aged 9 and under—an older son, a daughter and twin girls. We thought the one by his wife was very touching, so hope you can read it. A choir of the employees here, and also a choir from his stake sang. There were many church leaders from other countries in the Africa West Area (Sierra Leone, Liberia & Nigeria) who came for the funeral. It was very nice.