From Canada-
Rev. KEVIN FLYNN is an Anglican priest and director of the Anglican studies program at Saint Paul University.
No. What Christians, and Anglicans in particular, do believe in is that God is the God of life. The book of Genesis describes God as blowing the breath of life into the nostrils of the human creature. That is, life is a gift from God. With life comes the gift of freedom. The God who gives these gifts is a faithful God, one who will never abandon the creation.
The Christian believes that in Jesus’ dying and rising from the dead an altogether new dimension has been added to what we have understood life to be. We believe that God is faithful not only in life, but also in death and beyond death.
Clearly we have a distinct shortage of accurate information about what might await us on the other side of death. We can say that what counts is that we meet anything now in life or in death along with Christ.
Whatever comes next for us, comes with him. A human being is an indivisible combination of matter and spirit. We do not know this combination will be preserved and changed. We do believe that the loving and faithful God will not abandon us.
Historically, belief in ghosts covers beings variously described as revenants, angels, devils, fairies, will-o’-the-wisps, etc. Cultural context, with its prevailing philosophy, theology and science, determines much of how people experience and describe the sense of connection with the dead. The Christian belief that the whole person is to receive life in final and definitive form means that our co-existence with other people is also part of eternity. Christian imagination, prayer and reflection focus on this communion of the saints. Rather than disembodied spirits, shades or bits of psychic detritus, we are nourished by images of eternity as a banquet or a wedding party.
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http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Does+your+faith+tradition+believe+that+dead+reappear+ghosts+spirits/3975272/story.html#ixzz1878xgpKj
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