214.550. Scatter gardens, operation by churches maintaining religious cemeteries--maintenance of garden and records, duty of operator. - Missouri Statutes

Scatter gardens, operation by churches maintaining religiouscemeteries--maintenance of garden and records, duty of operator.

214.550. 1. For purposes of this section, the following terms mean:

(1) "Cremains", the ashes that remain after cremation of a humancorpse;

(2) "Operator", a church that owns and maintains a religiouscemetery;

(3) "Religious cemetery", a cemetery owned, operated, controlled, ormanaged by any church that has or would qualify for federal tax-exemptstatus as a nonprofit religious organization pursuant to section 501(c) ofthe Internal Revenue Code as amended;

(4) "Scatter garden", a location for the spreading of cremains setaside within a cemetery.

2. It shall be lawful for any operator of a religious cemeteryadjacent to a church building or other building regularly used as a placeof worship to establish a scatter garden for the purpose of scatteringhuman cremains.

3. The operator of any religious cemetery containing a scatter gardenshall maintain, protect, and supervise the scatter garden, and shall beresponsible for all costs incurred for such maintenance, protection, andsupervision. Such operator shall also maintain a record of all cremainsscattered in the scatter garden that shall include the name, date of death,and Social Security number of each person whose cremains are scattered, andthe date the cremains were scattered.

4. A scatter garden established pursuant to this section shall bemaintained by the operator of the religious cemetery for as long as suchoperator is in existence. Upon dissolution of such operator, all recordsof cremains shall be transferred to the clerk of the city, town, or villagein which the scatter garden is located, or if the scatter garden is locatedin any unincorporated area, to the county recorder.

(L. 2002 H.B. 1148)