CANTON − The Rev. Gary Smith has had a varied career. The former steelworker has worked since 2017 as senior pastor at Lowell Church on Clarendon Avenue SW.
He also has served at Zion United Church of Christ in North Canton, retiring there in 2004.
Smith's second career also has a varied list of responsibilities. Church services and meeting with and counseling worshippers are only a few.
A key part of every pastor's duty is conducting funerals. It gets tricky when clergy are tasked with delivering a eulogy for someone they barely know or have never met.
In addition to pastoring Lowell Church, the 77-year-old Smith is in great demand. He heads a four-person team that works with 20 funeral homes throughout Northeast Ohio. Team members include the Rev. Amy Downard, his daughter and associate pastor; Sherry Ackerman; and church member Harry Knotts.
Smith said he earned his celebrant certification through the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science after completing a seminar led by the late Doug Manning, a world-renowned expert on funeral traditions.
Smith said his task is to craft a "story" of each person's life, adding that he never reads a person's obituary.
"That's what Doug Manning taught me to do, and that's what I've taught the team to do," he said. "Before COVID, I would go to everybody's house. I spend hours on the phone with some people. If a family wants to meet with me in person, I'll meet with them at the funeral home."
Nonsectarian and secular funeral services, and the use of celebrants, are growing as the number of Americans who belong to religious organizations has been in steady decline for decades.
Studies show that just 30% to 40% of Americans regularly attend weekly worship services. In an American Religious Identification Survey, 29% of respondents said they don't anticipate having a religious funeral service.
"I do funerals of all faiths," Smith said. "I once did a Bahá'i service. It might be a marriage of mixed faiths. I went into (a funeral home) one day and there was a table in front of the casket, a full dinner for the person who died. I wish I could remember which faith. Another time, people brought in a burner, like the kind you have in your backyard, because their tradition was to burn money during a funeral. The fire alarm went off. You should have seen the look on the (funeral director's) face."
Jim Rossi, co-owner of the Rossi Funeral Home in Canton, lauded Smith's ministry because it provides an option to families who don't have a connection to a church or clergy.
"He's such great guy," Rossi said. "Gary can pretty much tailor each service to any denomination. He's very personable. He felt a real calling and need to do this after his retirement. He's been a comfort to the families."
Rev. Amy Downard said she believes she was called by God to assist her father in the ministry after surviving stage-four cancer.
"My dad's a wonderful person, but I'm a daddy's girl," she said with a laugh. "What makes our services different is we want to celebrate the person's life and their accomplishments. A lot of times when people come to our services, they just don't feel like they've been to a typical funeral because it's very uplifting instead of very depressing. Nothing against any other religion, but they're more ritualistic as opposed to what we do. We talk about the person a lot."
On July 1, Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of the Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, issued a stern warning for Catholics to avoid what he calls "irregular practices" that have made their way into the funeral Mass, such as highly personalized memories and praise for the deceased. Paprocki reminded his parishioners to adhere to the church's longstanding Order of Christian Funerals, and expressed his preference for burial rather than cremation.
But Smith said he's done funerals for Catholics, as well as for Eastern Orthodox families.
"A lot of people have become disenfranchised from their churches," he said.
Smith said the COVID pandemic was very difficult for grieving families because funeral homes restricted services to just 10 attendees. An estimated 1 million Americans died during the pandemic.
"I did 220 that year. It was just bang-bang-bang," he recalled. "Graveside services were big because you could be outside. I did a lot of funerals in private homes because they were cremations. They kind of reminded me of the old days when the body would be laid out in the parlor."
He estimates that he's conducted about 50 services so far this year.
"Summer tends to be slower because older people aren't dying from colds and pneumonia and things like that," he said.
During the funeral services, Smith and the team distribute what he calls "funeral favors," trinkets that symbolize the deceased person's story, personality or hobby.
"That's kind of our signature thing that people know us by, " Downard said.
An Air Force veteran, Smith said funerals for veterans are a personal priority. He admits he's bothered by some people's decision not to have any type of service or remembrance.
"Some of it is convenience," he said. "To me, it's a cheap way of doing it. I think a party or celebration is fine, so long as there is a remembrance. "
He advocates some type of viewing, even if it's just for the family.
"I'm a traditionalist," he admits. "But people need to have a viewing of some kind. I've had people argue with me about it. But funerals are for the living."
Smith said his ultimate mission is to ensure a good service.
"It's a ministry. We're serving people," he said. "Perhaps if I wasn't a pastor, I'd be a funeral director. I can't remember where I heard it, but somebody said 'Good funerals make for good grief.' I'm there to get the family on the right path to grief because there's no such thing as 'closure.' The thing I love about it is, there's laughter, there's tears, there's so much emotion."
Reach Charita at 330-580-8313 or [email protected]. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP.
Lowell Church, 1802 Clarendon Ave. SW in Canton, will honor the Rev. Gary Smith during a special service at 10:15 a.m. Aug. 9. Smith recently received an honorary doctorate of divinity from the Omega Bible Institute and Seminary. Church member Harry Knotts will speak.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Canton pastor leads team in funeral mission