Abstract
The contemporary Church exists in a moment characterized by multitudinous deaths. What is a faithful response of the body of Christ in the Anthropocene as it watches unfold a sixth great mass extinction of non-human species, caused largely by human activities? What posture would serve the Church best as an emerging polycrisis threatens the established stability of human ways of living? How might the Church within post-Christian western societies respond when it inhabits and is itself shaped by a culture living in denial of death? Alongside calls to a considered radical activism, this article contends that essential to holding onto authentic humanity and vital to the Church's witness to the evangel of Jesus Christ is a reacquaintance with grief. The Church's rites of mourning, I argue, are a gift to be rediscovered - both for the sake of the Church, and for broader society.