Graveside and Committal Services

A committal is the short rite at the graveside, at the moment of burial or interment. It may follow a full funeral service elsewhere, or it may be the only service a family holds — which is increasingly common and entirely proper.

The order

1. Gathering at the graveside
2. Scripture or reading — reference and reader.
3. Words of committal — the officiant. This is the heart of it.
4. Prayer and the Lord's Prayer
5. Final farewell — commonly the placing of flowers or a handful of earth.
6. Closing — and where people are going next.

Six entries, ten to twenty minutes. Resist lengthening it. The brevity is not a limitation of the form; it is the form.

The practicalities nobody mentions

• People are standing. Ask the cemetery for chairs for anyone who needs one — most have them and most will not offer unless asked.
• It is outdoors. Tell people in advance to dress for it. Heels and cemetery ground do not agree.
• Sound carries badly. A reading that worked in a church will not reach the back of a graveside group. Keep readings short and ask readers to speak up more than feels natural.
• Say where to go next. The most common failure at a committal is everyone standing around afterwards, unsure whether it is over.

Do you need a printed program?

Often, no. For a small family committal, handing out programs to nine people standing in the wind can feel more awkward than helpful.

Print one when the committal is the only service being held, when there are people attending who did not know the family well, or when the family wants the keepsake — which is a perfectly good reason on its own.

A single-page program suits this: the order above, a short life tribute, three photographs and the closing acknowledgment on one sheet. Anything folded is more object than the occasion needs.