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Potter's Field
Holy Ground
by the Rev. Paul Chapman on behalf of Interfaith Friends of Potter's Field
Wherever the bodies of deceased men, women or children are buried, that is Holy Ground, perhaps all the more so for those who in life have been denied the dignity to which all God’s children are entitled. Potter's Field on Hart Island is Holy Ground.
Inspired by the Potter’s Field Campaign of Picture the Homeless, a group of Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders of Metro New York have formed the Interfaith Friends of Potter’s Field, to help recognize the sanctity of this forgotten place.
Together with members of Picture the Homeless, we seek to make the burial ground more accessible to friends and relatives, and we are holding regular Interfaith Memorial Services on Hart Island to honor those who are buried there. Further, we are joining with the Potter’s Field Committee to improve the way that the deceased can be identified and friends and relatives notified.
We want to call by name whoever is laid to rest there.
Wherever the bodies of deceased men, women or children are buried, that is Holy Ground, perhaps all the more so for those who in life have been denied the dignity to which all God’s children are entitled. Potter's Field on Hart Island is Holy Ground.
Inspired by the Potter’s Field Campaign of Picture the Homeless, a group of Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders of Metro New York have formed the Interfaith Friends of Potter’s Field, to help recognize the sanctity of this forgotten place.
Together with members of Picture the Homeless, we seek to make the burial ground more accessible to friends and relatives, and we are holding regular Interfaith Memorial Services on Hart Island to honor those who are buried there. Further, we are joining with the Potter’s Field Committee to improve the way that the deceased can be identified and friends and relatives notified.
We want to call by name whoever is laid to rest there.
( categories: Potter's Field )
The Nature of Hart Island
Excerpts from the essay, "The Nature of Hart Island," by Melinda Hunt and published in: Hart Island, Melinda Hunt/Joel Sternfeld, Scalo, Zurich, Berlin, New York, 1998.
“New York is the only major American city to maintain a separate public burial ground for its strangers, for those who die alone and unclaimed or for whom nobody is willing or able to afford a private funeral--a potter's field. The term "potter's field" refers to the land purchased for the burial of strangers just outside of town and comes from a passage in Matthew 27:5-7 (New American Bible. Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, DC. Benziger, Inc., New York/Berverly Hills, 1970):
Since its purchase in 1869, three quarters of a million people have been buried on Hart Island making it the most dense cemetery in America. This public burial ground is difficult to visit because it is administered by the prison authorities. Inmates serving short-term sentences are bused in from nearby Riker's Island to perform the daily burials.
The Hart Island Project is a journey to this forbidden burial ground. The path proceeds through the front office of the New York City Department of Correction, the only route available to anyone trying to locate family. Those who make the trip to Hart Island usually leave feeling unsettled. They have visited a part of America which is more unacknowledged than unknown….”
“New York is the only major American city to maintain a separate public burial ground for its strangers, for those who die alone and unclaimed or for whom nobody is willing or able to afford a private funeral--a potter's field. The term "potter's field" refers to the land purchased for the burial of strangers just outside of town and comes from a passage in Matthew 27:5-7 (New American Bible. Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, DC. Benziger, Inc., New York/Berverly Hills, 1970):
- ‘So Judas flung the money into the temple and left. He went off and hanged himself. The chief priests picked up the silver, observing, 'It is not right to deposit this in the temple treasury since it is blood money.' After consultation, they used it to buy the potter's field as a cemetery for foreigners.’
Since its purchase in 1869, three quarters of a million people have been buried on Hart Island making it the most dense cemetery in America. This public burial ground is difficult to visit because it is administered by the prison authorities. Inmates serving short-term sentences are bused in from nearby Riker's Island to perform the daily burials.
The Hart Island Project is a journey to this forbidden burial ground. The path proceeds through the front office of the New York City Department of Correction, the only route available to anyone trying to locate family. Those who make the trip to Hart Island usually leave feeling unsettled. They have visited a part of America which is more unacknowledged than unknown….”
( categories: Potter's Field )
Hart Island Film
Directed by Melinda Hunt
Hart Island is a documentary about America’s largest cemetery where over three quarters of a million people have been buried since the American Civil War. It is a story told from the perspective of four families people who manage to overcome social stigma, outdated policies and police oversights and who refuse to fit the assumption that no one cares about people buried in the potter's field. This film shows them at the end of a long journey through a labyrinth of city agencies the NYPD, the Office of the Medical Examiner, the Health and Hospitals Corporation and the Department of Correction. Their goal is to perform the most basic grieving rituals: visiting a grave, spreading the parents' ashes, locating a body mistakenly buried, searching the records and seeking justice.
The film makes visible a place that is invisible. In fact, Hart Island is not a particularly scary place. It is the last undeveloped hundred acres in New York City, a place abundant with birds and vegetation. Yet it carries a deep-seated cultural fear of being forgotten. The burial place of so many, it represents the flipside of the American Dream.
for more information, visit hartisland.org
Hart Island is a documentary about America’s largest cemetery where over three quarters of a million people have been buried since the American Civil War. It is a story told from the perspective of four families people who manage to overcome social stigma, outdated policies and police oversights and who refuse to fit the assumption that no one cares about people buried in the potter's field. This film shows them at the end of a long journey through a labyrinth of city agencies the NYPD, the Office of the Medical Examiner, the Health and Hospitals Corporation and the Department of Correction. Their goal is to perform the most basic grieving rituals: visiting a grave, spreading the parents' ashes, locating a body mistakenly buried, searching the records and seeking justice.
The film makes visible a place that is invisible. In fact, Hart Island is not a particularly scary place. It is the last undeveloped hundred acres in New York City, a place abundant with birds and vegetation. Yet it carries a deep-seated cultural fear of being forgotten. The burial place of so many, it represents the flipside of the American Dream.
( categories: Potter's Field )
Interfaith Friends of Potter's Field
The secret to the overwhelming success of Potter’s Field Campaign just one year after we began lies in the deep resonance of this issue among our membership because we know that this is likely to be our final resting place. In addition, the support from clergy and lay leaders from various faith communities of an agenda developed by homeless people and which ultimately resulted in the formation of Interfaith Friends of Potters Field has been invaluable. The family of Lewis Haggins, who have joined us in campaign meetings, as well as with public officials has been inspirational.
The Poverty Initiative at Union Theological Seminary hosted a dialogue between Picture the Homeless and faith leaders on March 1, 2005. This dialogue gave us the opportunity to educate faith leaders about the manner in which bodies of the poor are handled after they die and about the hardships the poor face as they seek to find closure in the loss of their close friends. Everyone left that dialogue agreeing that real changes were needed in the way the City handles deaths among the poor.
Members of the Potter's Field Campaign, under the leadership of the Rev. Amy Gopp, developed a moving memorial, "With All Due Respect," to honor the lives of all those buried in Potter's Field. Union Theological Seminary hosted this memorial on March 3, 2005. On June 22, 2005, a follow up gathering of faith leaders took place at Picture the Homeless’ office. By this time, the Potter’s Field Campaign was able to bring to the table solid proposals for how faith communities could assist us in affecting the types of changes we had previously agreed needed to happen. Between the March and June meetings, Picture the Homeless had an opportunity to do more extensive outreach to broaden the diversity of faith communities supporting our campaign.
The Poverty Initiative at Union Theological Seminary hosted a dialogue between Picture the Homeless and faith leaders on March 1, 2005. This dialogue gave us the opportunity to educate faith leaders about the manner in which bodies of the poor are handled after they die and about the hardships the poor face as they seek to find closure in the loss of their close friends. Everyone left that dialogue agreeing that real changes were needed in the way the City handles deaths among the poor.
Members of the Potter's Field Campaign, under the leadership of the Rev. Amy Gopp, developed a moving memorial, "With All Due Respect," to honor the lives of all those buried in Potter's Field. Union Theological Seminary hosted this memorial on March 3, 2005. On June 22, 2005, a follow up gathering of faith leaders took place at Picture the Homeless’ office. By this time, the Potter’s Field Campaign was able to bring to the table solid proposals for how faith communities could assist us in affecting the types of changes we had previously agreed needed to happen. Between the March and June meetings, Picture the Homeless had an opportunity to do more extensive outreach to broaden the diversity of faith communities supporting our campaign.
( categories: Potter's Field )
Achievements of Potter's Field Campaign
- ♥ Worked with Thomas McCarthy, unofficial historian for Hart Island, to include a memorial card for Lewis Haggins at correctionhistory.org.
- ♥ Under the leadership of the Rev. Amy Gopp, developed a moving memorial, "With All Due Respect," to honor the lives of all those buried in Potter's Field. Union Theological Seminary hosted this memorial on March 3, 2005.
- ♥ On Ascension Thursday, May 5, 2005, members of the Potter’s Field Campaign made a journey to join St. Benedict Catholic Church on Hart Island for a memorial mass for those who are buried in Potter’s Field. Members of the campaign were unsuccessful gaining access to Hart Island, but the journey was recorded into a moving documentary film.
- ♥ On Tuesday, August 2, 2005, Interfaith Friends of Potter’s Field and members of Picture the Homeless’ Potter’s Field Campaign met with Deputy Commissioner Thomas Antenen of the Department of Correction to negotiate interfaith memorial services on Hart Island. As a result of that meeting, the Department of Correction has provisionally allowed bi-monthly memorial services.
- ♥ On August 4, 2005, the Potter’s Field Campaign’s documentary film, “Journey Towards Dignity” aired on Manhattan Neighborhood Network. The film aired again on September 1, 2005.
- ♥ On Sunday, August 14, 2005, Newsday did a cover story article by Luis Perez about our Potter’s Field Campaign.
- ♥ On August 25, 2005, Picture the Homeless intiated dialogue with Deputy Chief Joseph J. Reznick and several members of N.Y.P.D.’s Missing Person’s Squad about existing impediments to efficient identification of deceased John and Jane Does. We have agreed to work together to explore ways in which identification of deceased persons can become quicker and more efficient.
( categories: Potter's Field )
Hart Island
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New York City’s current Potter’s Field is located on Hart Island, in the Long Island Sound east of City Island in the Bronx. Hart Island is New York's City’s ninth Potter’s Field. Those who pass away in New York City poor, unclaimed or unidentified are buried there. Estimates are that over 800,000 people are now interred in mass graves on Hart Island. During epidemics the numbers have increased to as many as 15,000 bodies per year. Hart Island receives an average of 1500 bodies annually. About half of these are children under five. Hart Island remains a last vestige of a burial system left over from the British Colonial period. Beginning with the American Civil War, Hart Island was a training camp for Union Soldiers and then, following Gettysburg, a prison camp for Confederate soldiers and finally a burial ground with mass graves as it remains today. |
 © 1998, Melinda Hunt, www.hartisland.org. |
 © 1991, Joel Steinfeld, www.hartisland.org |
Early in the 20th Century a number of buildings were constructed for a Boys Reformatory that housed around 2000 teenagers. During World War II, Hart Island was used as a disciplinary camp for 2,800 Naval, Marine and Coastguard troops. After the War, a 30-foot peace monument was erected by Hart Island inmates. Various other hospitals, mental institutions and substance abuse programs occupied Hart Island until the last, Phoenix House, departed 1976. Today, the buildings that once housed the various activities on Hart Island remain empty and decaying, standing tributes to the empty shells that once housed the sparks of human life. ( categories: Potter's Field )
Goals of the Potter's Field Campaign
The specific goals approved in common by the Potter's Field Campaign are:
( categories: Potter's Field )
Potter's Field Campaign
The Potter’s Field Campaign grew out of the loss of Picture the Homeless’ co-founder, Lewis Haggins, on December 23, 2003. Picture the Homeless, under the leadership of the Civil Rights Committee, had made attempts, prior to Lewis’ passing, to gain access to potter’s field to remember the countless homeless buried there. But Lewis’ passing struck home, in a very personal way, how important it is for the poor to have closure in their relationships and to know that they, themselves, will be reposed in dignity.
The way the poor and homeless are handled after they die in New York City is not the only insult the poor face... but it's the final insult.  © Newsday, Photographer, Jason DeCrow The essentially spiritual nature of the Potter’s Field Campaign makes us unique among Picture the Homeless’ campaigns. In order to succeed, we needed to build on existing relationships with faith leaders and reach out to a more diverse range of faith leaders. As a result of our efforts, Picture the Homeless now counts among our close allies leaders of Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Muslim faiths. As we move forward, we hope to broaden our alliances to include leaders of non-Abrahamaic faiths. All who pass from this life possess a sacred dignity intrinsic to their membership among the human family; and all consequently deserve to be reposed in dignity and remembered with honor and love. ( categories: Potter's Field )
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