The Last Gift of Life: A Workshop on Advance Directives and Funeral Plans

Do you want to assure that your family and doctors know how you want to live while dying?  Do you want assurance that your final wishes will be known? Do you want to ease the confusion and grief of your loved ones by leaving clear instruction for your funeral?

This practical workshop on Advance Directives and funerals will help you to plan for your care at the end of life — whether it is to have every possible procedure or to limit medical interventions if there is no hope of recovery.  As well, you will have an opportunity to reflect on the theological and personal considerations for your funeral plans, and to make concrete plans about your desires for Scripture and music at your service, as well as express your preference for cremation or body burial. These plans become your last gift to your family so that they can know your wishes. Of course, as long as you are of sound mind you may constantly change and update them as things change in your life.

This workshop is intergenerational, designed for seniors and the children of seniors, and is open to anyone in the community who wants to learn more about this subject. For those who are interested, multiple forms for both Advance Directives and funerals will be available to help in your planning which will be explained  in the workshop; you can take them home for further reflection and conversation with your families and doctors.

Leaders: Rev.  Henry Brinton, Senior Pastor, Fairfax Presbyterian Church, who has been in ministry for 26 years and assisted in planning and performing hundreds of funerals.  Rev. Dr. Abigail Rian Evans, professor Princeton Seminary emerita, who has written and taught on death and dying for over 25 years and has a new lauded book on this subject IS GOD STILL AT THE BEDSIDE: MEDICAL, ETHICAL, AND PASTORAL ISSUES IN DEATH AND DYING, 500 pp Erdman press: 2011. She is currently Adjunct Professor, Dept. of Family Medicine, Senior Scholar, Center for Clinical Bioethics, Georgetown University Medical Center and theological associate, Fairfax Presbyterian Church.

Fee : Free will donation to cover the cost of lunch and materials. Please make out a check to Fairfax Presbyterian Church with “Last Gift” in the memo line.

Register by October 1, 2012 in the main office of Fairfax Presbyterian Church, 10723 Main Street, Fairfax, Virginia 22030. Phone: 703-273-5300.

Schedule:

12:30 – 1:15     Lunch

1:15 – 2:15       Overview of workshop by Abigail Evans and Henry Brinton

2:15 – 2:20       Break

2:20 – 3:10       Group A (Advance Directives) with Evans and Group B (Funeral Plans) with Brinton

3:10 - 4:00       Switch Groups (Group A to B, and B to A, if desired)