The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) will host a series of regional seminars in April 2011 for clergy, hospice and healthcare professionals, educators, funeral directors and other professionals focusing on strategies for better serving the dying, the dead and the bereaved. The Good Death, Good Grief, Good Funerals: Finding Our Place on the Continuum of Care seminars will take place:
April 5, 1-4 p.m., Northampton Community College, Bethlehem, Penn.
April 6, 1-4 p.m., Mount Ida College, Newton, Mass.
April 12, 1-4 p.m., Emory University, Atlanta, Ga.
April 18, 1-4 p.m., University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind.
The Good Death, Good Grief, Good Funerals seminars will feature experts Dr. Thomas Long and Thomas Lynch. Long is the Bandy Professor of Preaching at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. He is the author of many books including, The Witness of Preaching and Accompany Them with Singing: The Christian Funeral.
Lynch is a writer and funeral director from Milford, Mich. He has taught with the graduate program in Creative Writing at the University of Michigan. His books include The Undertaking, which became an Emmy Award-winning PBS documentary by the same name.
The Good Death, Good Grief, Good Funerals seminars are being co-hosted by the state funeral directors associations of Alabama, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee and Vermont.
The cost to attend The Good Death, Good Grief, Good Funerals seminar is $50 per person. Up to three hours of continuing education may be available for licensed funeral directors (based on state requirements) and members of the clergy.
For more information or to register, visit www.nfda.org/outreachseminars or call NFDA at 800-228-6332.
