A Kerala church opened the gates of its cemetery to cremate a Hindu woman whose family lacked enough space to conduct the last rites at their modest property.

Hindu families in certain rural areas of Kerala do not prefer to conduct the last rites at public crematoriums.

So when Omana Achary, 68, passed away on Thursday, her family approached the St Joseph’s Church in Ramankary, Alappuzha, seeking permission to cremate her at the church cemetery, located just 100 metres from their home.

The vicar agreed even before he had taken the matter to the church committee, made up of members of the parish.

“I didn’t think twice when the family approached me,” Father Varghese Mathilakathuzhy, vicar of the church that is part of the Changanassery Archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar order, told reporters.

Nor did the church committee object. “We knew the family of Omana since her son had done some carpentry job on our church premises,” Father Varghese said.

The vicar was present during the cremation along with the other church committee functionaries. He also mobilised more than 20 volunteers from the parish to clean the ground and arrange for other facilities for the cremation, held around 3pm on Thursday.

Congress leader Joseph Checkoden, former panchayat member from the area and a neighbour of Omana’s family, described the vicar’s gesture as a “model worth emulating”.

“It’s a clear message to everyone. Not only did the vicar immediately agree to allow the cremation, he made all the arrangements,” Checkoden, a member of the same parish and convener of the Congress-led United Democratic Front for the Kuttanad area in the district, told The Telegraph on Saturday.

He said a proper pyre was built at the cemetery and all the Hindu rituals were conducted.

Checkoden said the church had already allowed the cremation of Christians in the same cemetery following the Covid outbreak. Cremating dead Covid patients is widely considered a safer option than burying them.

“My 84-year-old uncle, George, had died of Covid in May during the peak of the second wave. I was the one who lit the pyre after the vicar agreed to have my uncle cremated at the cemetery,” Checkoden said.

He said his uncle’s ashes were then buried according to Christian rites at the same cemetery.

While churches have traditionally buried the dead, they have been open to cremation in many instances. The Alappuzha Latin Catholic Diocese had in July permitted the cremation of Covid victims at their respective church cemeteries.

The church had cited permission from the Vatican to cremate the dead because of a space crunch at burial grounds several years before Covid made such decisions inevitable.