A memorial for a member of Trinity Lutheran Church, 120 Sunset Drive, will allow others to keep memories of their deceased relatives alive.

With the creation of the Wayne Allison Memorial Columbarium, relatives can visit their deceased every time they go to church.

A columbarium is a place for the storage of urns holding cremated remains.

Dolores “Dolly” Allison bought Trinity's $10,000 columbarium cabinet in memory of her husband who died in 2010.

Her husband was a carpenter/contractor and she was a school teacher in Butler. The Allisons had been members of Trinity Lutheran for more than 50 years.

“When my husband passed away, I asked the pastor then, Tom Perotti, what I could do for a memorial for my husband and he suggested the columbarium,” said Allison. “I did this as a memorial to my husband because he loved this church and so do I.”

“He built the church altar, lectern and baptismal font,” said Allison. “He served on church council, was property chairman and a choir member and served on the building committee, and he always helped in any way he could.”

Allison's purchase ended fellow church member Sue Switzer's eight-year effort to establish a columbarium in Butler.

“Part of what spurred me on was the ashes of my husband are buried under a tree in a yard of a house in Carlisle, a house I no longer own,” said Switzer. “I decided to move back here, and I had to leave him behind.”

A retired insurance executive, Switzer was born in Oil City and moved to Butler in 2003 because she had friends and relatives in the area.

She was inspired by a columbarium she had seen in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd at the Chataqua Institute in Chataqua, N.Y., and has been working with fellow columbarium committee members Les Houston and Gerald Murkle to establish one at Holy Trinity.

Trinity pastor, the Rev. Joel Benson, said the project really didn't get momentum until Allison bought the columbarium cabinet in January 2011.

“It was work that moved at the speed of church,” said Benson.

Switzer said a lot of her work was just informing people what a columbarium was.

Trinity's is a steel cabinet that has been framed by Trinity member Robert Wilson in oak wood donated by member Ken Jesteadt.

The cabinet contains eight spaces, each of which holds four niches for urns.

Switzer said a metal cover holds nameplates where the deceased's name will be engraved.

Switzer said it was decided to place the columbarium in the church when plans for an exterior site hit a roadblock.

“We thought about the sanctuary, but some people weren't comfortable,” said Switzer.

“Two people in the congregation were just squeamish on the whole idea of bodies being burned and did not want to be reminded of that in the sanctuary,” said Switzer.

So, after a vote of the congregation, the columbarium was established in a former office around a corner from the sanctuary.

Switzer said there were no special permits to secure or conditions the church had to meet to set up the columbarium.

“It's simply a cabinet used to house urns. People have urns all over town,” said Switzer.

Switzer said she has a wish list for features to be added to the room.

It needs new carpet and the existing carpentry torn out, a stained-glass window in one wall and a decorative door, as well as chairs for visitors and different lighting, she noted.

“We have just opened the columbarium up to applications. We think that it is probable that people that use the columbarium will want to do some sort of memorial,” she said, which might aid in refurbishing the room.

Switzer said the columbarium is only open to active Trinity Lutheran members, pastors, former pastors and their immediate families.

Strict conditions also apply to the columbarium space itself, Switzer said. There will be no decorations other than the nameplates and nothing in the urns but human remains.

People will be able to visit the columbarium anytime the church is open, said Switzer.

A $500 fee and a signed lease agreement is needed to place an urn in the columbarium.

“It's a lease agreement. That way if someone moves away, they can chose to remove their relatives' urns,” said Switzer.

“If Trinity would cease to exist, we could say, 'Come get them,'” said Benson

The $500 is a one-time fee, said Switzer, and $100 goes to a perpetual care fund.

At present, there are five applications for the 32 available spaces, Switzer said. The room could hold additional cabinets for another 160 urns, she said.

Use of columbariums is growing, Switzer said.

“It's getting popular for a variety of reasons,” said Switzer. “Space is not as available for cemeteries. People are going green and don't want to tie up land for cemeteries. People do not want family members to go to gravesides.”

And it is significantly cheaper to be cremated than have a traditional burial, she added.

Benson said the urns can be added to the columbarium after a traditional viewing and funeral.

“There can be a committal service, basically the same thing as if you were going to the cemetery, except it's at the columbarium,” said Benson.

Trinity plans a dedication for the columbarium at an upcoming Sunday service, Benson said.