St Raoul

Charles 5 Comments
Charles

You’ve been following the Raoul Moat aftermath? The parody-of-Diana shrine, the mawkish and the up-yours tributes, the incredulous condemnations by a clearly baffled political class?

Revulsion? Dark merriment? Take your pick. This is a very British, brutish affair. If you’ve a moment, the St Raoul site on Facebook is worth a gander and a ponder.

5 Comments

  1. Charles

    Now, that would be a difficult funeral to minister at, and don’t you scarred old veterans out there of the “nothing fazes me, just doing my job” type pretend that it wouldn’t be!

  2. Charles

    This, I think, sits at the very core of what it means to be a ‘minister’. Taking the service of someone who has suffered a dreadful death, a terrible accident, suicide or even murder is so much easier than taking the service for someone who has done something dreadful, but they are entitled to a good, truthful funeral as well. These funerals seperates the ‘shouldn’t be doing this’ from the pros. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but I was astonished to hear there are celebrants who won’t take a service for children or someone who has taken their own life. In my school this would mean immediate expulsion. These funerals ARE the job. I would love to know what was said around Myra Hindley’s coffin. In idle moments I compose it myself. Haven’t got very far…

  3. Charles

    I hadn’t heard that there are nice-death-only celebrants. I agree that this amounts to disqualification and a life ban.

    Once you’ve stripped away the hullabaloo and the folk who get off on Moat’s death because it somehow says something about them, you’ve got the man himself, take him for all in all. And no one is all bad, not by any means.

    The more I think of it, the more I’d like to do it.

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