New Cemetery

A dedication ceremony is scheduled for this morning for the Alabama National Cemetery, a veteran's administration facility in Shelby County. The Birmingham News reports there will be representatives of 11 "denominations" involved in consecrating the new burial ground at 11:00am. Presumably that will not include the Reverend Fred Phelps, who's Kansas church has organized protests at veteran's funerals. The facility regulations may have been written with that in mind:

Public gatherings of a partisan nature are prohibited, no unauthorized gatherings are permitted. Committal shelters are for services only, no loitering.

I do wonder how they'll define "partisan" if push ever comes to shove. And how wide will the religious net be? The dictionary definition of "denomination" is: A large group of religious congregations united under a common faith and name and organized under a single administrative and legal hierarchy.

Will there be an Imam present? Or is the word denomination being used too loosely in the News?

Anyway, bless the departed veterans who'll be laid to rest in Montevallo.

[UPDATE: The Shelby County News reports: "Faiths represented included Buddhism, Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Presbyterian, Jewish, Episcopal, Baptist, Southern Baptist, Assembly of God and Protestant."