Is the Diocese of Southwark aware of Southwark’s discriminatory burial policy and if so do they condone it?
Today, the Friends of Camberwell Cemeteries have written to ask the Diocese of Southwark this question.
Southwark Council is subsidising burial for Christians but not for many of its residents of other faiths.
The Council has applied to the Diocese of Southwark for permission for burial developments that continue the discrimination.
The Diocese of Southwark has more than a passing interest in this issue as much of Southwark’s cemetery land is consecrated by the Church of England. The Council needs the Diocese’s permission for developments including felling two acres of woods and mounding over thousands of graves in Camberwell Old Cemetery.
Muslim and Jewish residents make up around one in ten of the borough’s population of approximately 300,000 – but are around one in three residents who require burial by faith.
Yet Southwark has never provided burial for most Muslim and Jewish residents who require certain funeral rites as part of the practice of their faith in death – such as not being buried in or over other people’s graves, burial in a specific, segregated cemetery and so on.
Most have to be buried outside the borough at their own cost, while Christians and other faiths receive subsidised burial provision.
Southwark offers a tiny so-called ‘Muslim area’ of burial plots in Nunhead Cemetery. Fewer than ten burials a year take place here as it is unsuitable for most of the borough’s 30,000 Muslim residents.
The world has changed – but Southwark’s subsidised burial service hasn’t. Councils are no longer allowed to discriminate against residents because of the way they practice their religion.
Southwark Council is effectively asking the Church of England to approve a burial policy that discriminates on grounds of religious practice. The Friends of Camberwell Cemeteries are asking the Diocese whether they are aware of the situation, what the Church thinks of it and what the Diocese is doing to stop the religious discrimination?
Over 800 people have written to the Diocese objecting to Southwark’s proposals to fell acres of woods and mound over thousands of people’s graves to sell as ‘new’ burial plots over the dead.
Religious discrimination is just another reason why burial must stop in Southwark.
The Friends of Camberwell Cemeteroies’ Save Southwark Woods campaign is fighting to protect the woods and graves of the Camberwell Cemeteries and preserve them as Nature Reserves, like Highgate and Nunhead Cemeteries.
Their letter today to the Diocese of Southwark is below.
27th February 2017
Dear Chancellor Petchey,
We are writing specifically to ask whether the Diocese is aware of Southwark’s discriminatory burial policy, and if so whether it approves or rejects the discrimination?
Southwark Council’s burial service discriminates against thousands of residents on religious grounds, by subsidising burial plots suitable for many Christians in the borough but unsuitable for residents of many other faiths.
Muslim and Jewish residents make up around one in ten of the borough’s population of approximately 300,000 but are around one in three residents who require burial by faith.
Southwark Council’s applications to the Diocese for faculty/permission do not provide for most Muslim and Jewish residents who require burial by faith with certain funeral rites as part of the practice of their faith in death, including not being buried in or over other people’s graves, burial in a specific, segregated cemetery and so on.
Most have to be buried outside the borough at their own cost while Christians and other faiths receive subsidised burial provision within the borough.
Southwark offers a tiny so-called ‘Muslim area’ of burial plots in Nunhead Cemetery. Fewer than ten burials a year take place here as it is unsuitable for most of the borough’s 30,000 Muslim residents.
Does the Diocese condone or reject this religious discrimination and will it do something to stop it?
Sincerely,
Blanche Cameron
Chair, Friends of Camberwell Cemeteries
The Save Southwark Woods Campaign
07731 304 966
savesouthwarkwoods@gmail.com
www.savesouthwarkwoods.org.uk
