What I meant to say was "safe travels and have a nice evening." Really.

March 20, 2013 9:40 AM

Does the term "homegoing" have a wide use across Christian denominations?

The other day at work, a colleague was heading out and I absently said "Happy homegoing!" on his way past. He stopped, came back to me, and took a minute to explain that "as a Christian believer" that term has a specifically funereal meaning. (Another coworker nearby affirmed the same thing. From cursory Googling, I should also specify that one of them is white, one is black, from fairly different backgrounds, so it seems it's not ethnoculturally specific.) I was kind of taken aback, since I had an active Catholic upbringing--am pretty much agnostic now--and don't remember ever hearing that before. So is it a Protestant/evangelical term or did I just completely miss it while growing up?

posted by psoas to Society & Culture (36 answers total)

I'm a lapsed Anglican, and had never heard of the term. A cursory googling leads me to believe that it might be a Baptist thing (apparently Whitney Houston was given a "Home Going").
posted by sparklemotion at 9:43 AM on March 20, 2013

I've never heard of that. I have a non-Catholic Christian background and I live in the Midwest USA.
posted by steinwald at 9:43 AM on March 20, 2013

Yeah, I saw all the Whitney results too. I'm in the DC area, if that's relevant.
posted by psoas at 9:48 AM on March 20, 2013

I know it's a Southern term. Here it is most strong in African American churches but there are white churches that use that terminology as well. I'm nondenominational and we don't use it but I would expect to hear it in some Baptist or pentecostal venues.

In other words, like a lot of Christian stuff, ymmv.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 9:48 AM on March 20, 2013

I think it's Baptist and runs through several arms of that denomination.

You could always express interest in learning more about their traditions and ask them about it. I'm sure they would be delighted to share.
posted by batmonkey at 9:49 AM on March 20, 2013

The Wikipedia article on African-American culture says this:

"Death is often viewed as transitory rather than final. Many services are called homegoings or homecomings, instead of funerals, based on the belief that the person is going home to the afterlife; "Returning to god" or the Earth (also see Euphemism as well as Connotation).[95] The entire end of life process is generally treated as a celebration of the person's life, deeds and accomplishments - the "good things" rather than a mourning of loss. This is most notably demonstrated in the New Orleans Jazz Funeral tradition where upbeat music, dancing, and food encourage those gathered to be happy and celebrate the homegoing of a beloved friend.[96]"

I've heard this before, mostly from Black Christians but also from other charismatic Christians.
posted by Tomorrowful at 9:49 AM on March 20, 2013

Never heard of it in my conservative protestant evangelical upbringing, which mostly happened on the West Coast and involved a couple of Baptist churches. Sounds like perhaps a Southern Baptist thing rather than a Baptist thing in general.
posted by Mars Saxman at 9:55 AM on March 20, 2013

Quick poke around Google Books for "homecoming funeral" and "homecoming celebration", and the earliest I can find is "My Father is rich: the biography of Aaron and Hilda Hancock" (1956). "...August, 1937 The Home-Going of Rev. Culbektsox A. Thompson...".

ngram has more luck.
posted by Leon at 9:58 AM on March 20, 2013

I've heard African-American protestants/evangelicals use "homecoming" in place of "funeral", but not "homegoing".
posted by downing street memo at 10:00 AM on March 20, 2013

Another lapsed Anglican, another person who's never heard of this. I grew up in a Catholic enclave within the Bible Belt, around lots of other mainline Protestants, too.

My best guess is that it's some kind of evangelical megachurch thing.
posted by Sara C. at 10:03 AM on March 20, 2013

I was raised Southern Baptists, I only heard it in reference to African American funerals but I would have been aware enough of it to confirm to you that it sounded like an invitation to his own funeral. :) That being said, it seems odd to me that he would take it as enough of an affront to stop and say something. In an office context it seems clear that you were just saying, goodbye!
posted by stormygrey at 10:04 AM on March 20, 2013

I grew up Southern Baptist (although not African American), but have never heard it in regard to funerals. We did have "homecomings", which were regular (yearly) happy celebrations in which people came back to the church they'd been a part of at some point in their life.
posted by bizzyb at 10:08 AM on March 20, 2013

My family is African-American, of Southern background, and generally Pentecostal. Homegoing means a funeral or wake.
posted by loriginedumonde at 10:12 AM on March 20, 2013

In South Carolina, at the Independent Fundamental Baptist church I used to attend, they would sometimes refer to the funeral of a fellow believer as "celebrating the homegoing of [name]."
posted by JDHarper at 10:28 AM on March 20, 2013

Here's a data point, a tweet from Oprah Winfrey: Happy Sunday tweeps. Can't stop thinking about Whitney's homegoing service yesterday...
posted by mhum at 10:29 AM on March 20, 2013

I have heard this term be used by Mennonite family.
posted by valeries at 10:43 AM on March 20, 2013

Methodist from DC, I've only ever heard the term from AME or black Baptist settings and used to refer to either a wake or funeral - which ever one was more public.
posted by Blasdelb at 10:44 AM on March 20, 2013

I grew up on West Coast as protestant/evangelical and I've heard that term maybe a few times and always in reference to death. Also, "went/going home to be with the lord."
posted by E3 at 10:52 AM on March 20, 2013

African-American Baptist Christian Southerner checking in. I haven't heard a funeral called a "funeral" in years--everyone in the Black Church seems to be saying "homegoing" these days. It's even printed on the funeral programs. I have observed this as far north as Chicago, as far south as New Orleans, and as far east as Washington, D.C.


I haven't heard white churches using this term, but that may be because I haven't had to attend any funerals lately for white friends lately. So my impression is that it's a mostly African-American thing. But YMMV.
posted by magstheaxe at 10:52 AM on March 20, 2013

I've also heard it among Presbyterians.
posted by E3 at 10:53 AM on March 20, 2013

Huh, I am not particularly religious, but I've heard this. I grew up going sporadically do a bunch of churches, mostly a Lutheran (if that helps).
posted by katers890 at 11:01 AM on March 20, 2013

Practicing Catholic in Seattle, formerly from Wisconsin. I've never heard it used. I also used to go to Episcopalian and Lutheran churches, and never heard it used there, either.
posted by spinifex23 at 11:10 AM on March 20, 2013

Most of the smaller churches around here (white and black) do a Homecoming service, usually in late summer or early fall. I'm told that it's a memorial service and tidying up/refreshing of decorations in the cemetery.

I've never heard "Homecoming" used in conversation that was not related to a school football game/dance or a church Homecoming event.
posted by workerant at 11:11 AM on March 20, 2013

I'm pretty sure I heard "homegoing" used in connection with the TLC show "Best Funeral Ever,"* about this (Black, Texas) funeral home that produces lavish theme funerals. Wherever it was I heard about the show, the person talking/writing about it had been unfamiliar with "homegoing" prior to watching the show.
posted by mskyle at 11:31 AM on March 20, 2013

In black Christian culture, a "homegoing service" is what we call a funeral ... Going home to Jesus, God, etc. On preview, what was said previously.
posted by nubianinthedesert at 11:52 AM on March 20, 2013

I've heard of homegoing in the funereal sense. (I think, actually, that was the term used at my grandfather's very non-Southern funeral, but I could be wrong.)
posted by sarcasticah at 11:56 AM on March 20, 2013

Thanks for the answers, everyone! Interesting the range of places it's been heard.

That being said, it seems odd to me that he would take it as enough of an affront to stop and say something.

I should specify that he didn't take it as an affront; more that he was just startled and explained why.
posted by psoas at 12:00 PM on March 20, 2013

I'm a non-lapsed Christian and I've never heard that term used to reference physical death, but I've never heard it used as a valediction either.
posted by BurntHombre at 12:14 PM on March 20, 2013

(Long lapsed) Southern Baptist from the South here. (North Carolina if that matters.) I have often heard the departed referred to euphemistically as "going home" or having "gone home ["to Jesus", or "to be with the Lord"]", but have never heard the word "homegoing" used to refer to any passing, event, or occasion.
posted by trip and a half at 1:13 PM on March 20, 2013

Most of the smaller churches around here (white and black) do a Homecoming service, usually in late summer or early fall. I'm told that it's a memorial service and tidying up/refreshing of decorations in the cemetery.

I've never heard "Homecoming" used in conversation that was not related to a school football game/dance or a church Homecoming event.

posted by workerant at 2:11 PM on March 20


There's a difference between "homecoming" and "homegoing", though.

Homecoming Sundays that I've attended are a little like Alumni Weekends at colleges. People who grew up in a particular church and have moved away will come back to that "home church" to see family and friends, and attend services with them on Sunday. Usually the Saturday before, some of the families will host picnics or pig roasts where everyone will gather for a little secular socializing. It's not unheard of for the Saturday before to be spent doing some cemetary visiting or clean-up, but that's more frequently done around Memorial Day weekend.

A Homegoing Service is the celebration-of-a-life-well-lived service for one who has recently passed.
posted by magstheaxe at 1:19 PM on March 20, 2013

I'm a white Texan with family from the South, and belong to the Disciples of Christ but have also attended services at similar non-evangelical types of churches. I've never heard of homegoing, used in whatever way you intended nor in the way it was received. However, when you google 'define: homegoing', the definition is this: "A funeral for an African-American person of Christian faith."
posted by Houstonian at 1:35 PM on March 20, 2013

Grew up in the Episcopalian Church in the South, never heard it. Having attended Southern Baptist on and off for the last ten years, have not heard it there either. Additional data point, congregations mainly white. Like someone up above said, I have heard the term "gone home" and its ilk, but never homegoing.
posted by Atreides at 2:26 PM on March 20, 2013

The evidence presented so far is making me think this is definitely a thing among current (?) African-Americans in the south, even though I had never heard of it. It's got me wondering whether it might be a relatively new thing?

To round out my data point:

1) Things I heard and/or would not have been surprised to hear, growing up in North Carolina in a white Southern Baptist family, whose mom, however, used to play piano at many black/African-American church services of all types (Sunday service, weddings, funerals) throughout the 'Low Country' (coastal Carolinas):

"S/he has gone home to Jesus."
"I was there when she went home."
"The Lord has called him home."
"She is home and at peace with the Lord now."

2) Things I never heard and/or would have been surprised to hear:

"Let us celebrate this homegoing."
"I was there at his homegoing."
"There will be a homegoing service for her on x date."
"S/he has had his/her homegoing."

Things change; I think this may be new.
posted by trip and a half at 2:45 PM on March 20, 2013

FYI, never heard this term before in New England.
posted by maryr at 3:22 PM on March 20, 2013

I have often heard the departed referred to euphemistically as "going home" or having "gone home ["to Jesus", or "to be with the Lord"]", but have never heard the word "homegoing" used to refer to any passing, event, or occasion.

ditto for this california girl who is just a follower of jesus.
posted by wildflower at 6:21 PM on March 20, 2013

I grew up Episcopalian in the South and only heard this term for the first time recently, from some black coworkers - Christian but I'm not sure what denomination.
posted by naoko at 7:16 PM on March 21, 2013