Perfect Stranger's Guide to Funerals and Grieving Practices

Stuart M. Matlins is founder, editor-in-chief and publisher of Jewish Lights Publishing and SkyLight Paths Publishing. Both imprints focus on religion and spirituality from a broad non-denominational perspective. He is author or editor of several books, including the best-selling How to Be a Perfect Stranger: The Essential Religious Etiquette Handbook (SkyLight Paths); The Jewish Lights Spirituality Handbook: A Guide to Understanding, Exploring & Living a Spiritual Life (Jewish Lights); The Perfect Stranger's Guide to Wedding Ceremonies: A Guide to Etiquette in Other People’s Religious Ceremonies; and The Perfect Stranger’s Guide to Funerals and Grieving Practices: A Guide to Etiquette in Other People’s Religious Ceremonies (both SkyLight Paths).Stuart was the 2014 recipient of the Abraham Geiger Medal, an award recognizing outstanding service to religious pluralism, and the 2006 recipient of the American Jewish Distinguished Service Award, an annual presentation of Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion. He was a member of the First Catholic/Jewish Lay Conference at the Vatican in October 2007, an event under the auspices of the Interreligious Information Center.Among his many speaking appearances, Stuart has been the scholar-in-residence or guest lecturer at the National Funeral Director’s Association convention, Temple Isaiah (Palm Springs, CA), The Jewish Center of the Hamptons (East Hampton, NY), Temple Sholom (Plainfield, NJ), Israel Congregation (Manchester, NH) and at the annual gatherings of the Jewish Community Centers Association and the Jewish Outreach Institute. He also has been a featured speaker or panel member at many Book Expo America conventions, and at the biennial Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College, as well as at churches and other conferences.Before publishing took over his life, he was a management consultant for over thirty years as a managing partner with Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc. and then heading his own consulting firm.He is the cofounder of an innovative synagogue in Woodstock, Vermont, with his wife, Antoinette Matlins, and served as lay spiritual leader for nineteen of its twenty-one years. He has served for over twenty years on the Board of Governors of Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, and was chair of the Board of Overseers of its New York School. He is widely recognized as a leader in the spiritual transformation of Judaism in our time.Stuart is listed in Who’s Who in America.

"This book couldn't have come at a better time.... A welcome Stranger."—Chicago Sun-Times“A wealth of information.... 'strangers’ to a religion will know exactly how to act, react and console friends of differing religions.”—Ron E. Wilder, president, Association for Death Education and Counseling“No other book comes close to being as comprehensive and easy to read.... A treasure, long overdue. A wonderful reference and guide.”—Helen Fitzgerald, C.D.E. (Certified Death Educator); author of The Mourning Handbook and The Grieving Teen

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionGeneral Secretary, National Council of Churches1 · African American Methodist Churches2 · Assemblies of God3 · Baha'i4 · Baptist5 · Buddhist6 · Christian and Missionary Alliance7 · Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)8 · Christian Congregation9 · Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist)10 · Church of the Brethren11 · Church of the Nazarene12 · Churches of Christ13 · Episcopalian and Anglican14 · Evangelical Free Church15 · Greek Orthodox16 · Hindu17 · International Church of the Foursquare Gospel18 · International Pentecostal Holiness Church19 · Islam20 · Jehovah’s Witnesses21 · Jewish22 · Lutheran23 · Mennonite/Amish24 · Methodist25 · Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)26 · Native American/First Nations27 · Orthodox Churches28 · Pentecostal Church of God29 · Presbyterian30 · Quaker (Religious Society of Friends)31 · Reformed Church in America/Canada32 · Roman Catholic33 · Seventh-day Adventist34 · Sikh35 · Unitarian Universalist36 · United Church of Canada37 · United Church of Christ38 · Wesleyan