The Tragedy of Suicide

The Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA) has issued a pastoral letter on the subject of suicide which I found to be really good. This is of course an extremely difficult and emotional topic for many people. It is also not as black and white as some have tended to believe. SCOBA's letter reflects the importance of understanding the mental and spiritual health of suicide victims while reaffirming the traditional Christian condemnation of the act.

The traditional practice of the Orthodox Church is to refuse a funeral and burial in consecrated ground to suicides. However, even the Fathers understood there were sometimes mitigating circumstances which call the Church to forbear and leave judgment to God. As pastoral council I believe this letter is one of the better ones to come out of SCOBA in a while. As a side note it also corresponds rather closely to my understanding of the Roman Catholic position on the subject. I commend the letter to the reader in its entirety.