Wayland church removing graveyard after families lose fight to keep loved ones buried
WAYLAND - A church is removing a graveyard from its property in Wayland and some families will have to bury their loved ones for a second time.
"I am going to have to relive the worst day of my life. I have to bury my husband again," Heidi Wilson told WBZ-TV.
She and other families recently lost an ongoing legal battle with the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and Coptic Churches. They now have no choice but to remove the remains of their loved ones from the Churchyard Memorial Garden on Rice Road in Wayland. For Heidi, this means relocating her mother, Pricilla Wilson, and her husband, Roderick Carlson Hodgson, who are both buried here.
"I don't know how I lived through the day of his funeral and now I got to live through it again. And I can tell you, it's been decades, but the pain has not reduced one iota," she said.
The Memorial Garden used to belong to the Church of the Holy Spirit, but the Episcopal Diocese sold the land to the Coptic Orthodox Church. Now, all the 50 people who were cremated and buried here must be removed because the Coptic Church does not believe in cremation.
"My mother and my father are both buried at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Wayland.," said Chris Woodstock, adding that he's surprised and hurt by the Massachuetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling. "I am afraid that is was a decision that was made based on an outcome that was wanted rather than what the law was."
Some of the remains have already been removed with the approval of loved ones. The diocese has also secured a designated section and monument in Wayland's North Cemetery. The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts released a statement saying, "We have worked successfully with a majority of them to respectfully remove and re-inter their loved ones' cremated remains from the former Episcopal church property in Wayland to a new location of the families' choosing, with the diocese covering the costs. ... These options remain open to the families whose loved ones' cremated remains have yet to be relocated, and diocesan personnel stand ready to be of assistance."
The families say there is no exact time frame as to when their loved ones must be removed from this location.
"I can't say, I want either of those churches ever to have anything to do with me or mine again. My family is arranging a disinternment and re-internment in places associated with the families," Wilson said.
"It disturbs me that a Coptic church can come In and remove a graveyard that's been there for awhile; it's a sacred area," Woodstock said.