GRAVEYARD

The oldest place of public burial in Franklin Township NJ is the Friends burying grounds at Quakertown.

A online source, for a list of those interned will be in A website called
“Find A Grave”..

The ‘Find A Grave’ website is managed by an unaffiliated third party. To requests updates to a grave listing you will need to create a logon then ‘view source’ then click on the name of ‘created by’ and ‘send message’ to them.

quakers & Death

Most Friends Meetings in the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting jurisdiction care for historic burial grounds and aid with funeral and burial arrangements for deceased members on their property. In coordination with families and meeting elders (pastoral care and worship committees) Friends hold a memorial meeting for worship to celebrate the life of departed and beloved members usually several weeks or months after death.

A committee of the meeting may authorize interments of ashes or scatterings of ashes, keeping accurate records of the location of the interred and recording that ashes have been scattered on the premises.

Friends have traditionally expressed their commitments to simplicity and the equality of all persons by discouraging the use of elaborate grave markers. Graves are ordinarily marked by plain stones that bear only the name of the deceased and dates of birth and death.

Quakers do not have a specific set of beliefs about life after death. Quaker faith is centered on present lives, and not on what could await us after death. Quakers do believe that it is important to prepare for death.

However, many Quakers who adhere to the Christian understanding of the early Quakers do believe in an afterlife while others may consider death the end of our existence.

“Nowadays, a literal and physical heaven, located somewhere “out there,” has become difficult for the modern mind to accept uncritically, but the religious critique of this other-worldly emphasis is hardly new, and in fact is rooted in the Gospels. … There is a story from Meister Eckhart, which for me has always encapsulated that critique, and serves as a warning against an overemphasis on the afterlife. It seems that in his time, there was a woman who used to walk through the streets of medieval Strasbourg, carrying a burning torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. When asked what she was doing, she replied that with the torch she would burn down the gates of heaven, and with the water she would put out the fires of hell, so that men and women might learn to love the Lord for his own sake, and not out of fear of punishment or hope for reward.”

— Thomas Gates, 2007, Extracts from the Writings of Friends - Faith & Practice - Philidelphia Yearly Meeting (Advice no. 94)

National Flags & Grave Markers

Quakers are not in favor of violence in any form but understand individual circumstances and feeling of duty and service to our country in order to protect our families and neighbors from threats beyond our control.

Some Members of Quakertown Friends Meeting have served in the arms services during war time and peace. We recognize and are respectful to the Veterans tradition of honoring those who have served by outwardly displaying small items by the gravestone to commemorate their kinship. We respect and support the deceased families wishes to display such items.

To find out more about Veteran Organizations founded by The Religious Society of Friends you can visit their website;
American Friends Service Committee
Center on Conscience and War
Quaker House