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According to Death Bear’s website this is the purpose of his services: We all have someone or something we would rather just forget. Things fall apart. Love hurts. Dreams die. But when you summon Death Bear to your door, you can rest assured that help has come. At first you may be intimidated by his stature and color (7 feet tall with a hard, black bear head, black jumpsuit, and black boots), but absorbing the memories of others is a dark art, and Death Bear must present himself appropriately for this solemn duty. Death Bear will take things from you that trigger painful memories and stow them away in his cave where they will remain forever allowing you to move on with your life. Give him an ex's clothes, old photos, mementos, letters, etc. Death Bear is here to assist you in your time of tragedy, heartbreak, and loss. Let Death Bear help you, and absorb your pain into his cave.
At first I thought that this was a weird and creepy service but then I realized that Death Bear is offering a service missing in our culture today: ritual. Our culture doesn’t do a good job at marking significant events in our lifes. Divorce, death and break up’s happen and are left with no sense of closure. I recently had a funeral director tell me that more and more people aren’t having any sort of funeral or memorial service for their deceased loved one. Death Bear serves a need. People want to mark the significant happenings in their life.
I believe that the church also meets this need but could do a better job. We have the tradtional baptisms, weddings and funeral as well as the church liturgical calendar that marks seasons like Advent and Lent. Here at Maple Leaf we mark the beginning of the school year with a “blessing of the backpacks” service and this year we had a “vocational blessing and celebration” service to acknowledge what people do in their lives on a daily basis. I know of churches who have divorce rituals, recovery anniversary celebrations, blessing of drivers liscenses for 16 year olds and other special ways to mark important events in people’s lives.
How else can the church meet the deep need for ritual and marking important events in people’s lives?
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