For several years, I had the privilege of serving a congregation in upstate New York. There were many wonderful, faithful people who were part of that congregation. Before I arrived, the membership had decided to build a columbarium. Unlike many churches that create niches inside the church for burial, this group decided to create a rather elaborate and visually attractive outdoor columbarium. The church was blessed with land. It was a fairly narrow plot that extended a great distance from Main Street down to a river that ran behind the church. One needed to go through a great, long woods to get to the river as the total amount of property the church held was about fourteen acres. The entrance to the columbarium was in the back of the parking lot. A walkway was created that extended about …