Should the British mourn or celebrate their dead?
Posted by Jose Antonio Estevez Garcia When my best friend died at the age of 38 it was a drama – not only his unexpected loss but also his funeral which, far from helping us to face that moment, only added more pain to those grievous days. The reason is quite simple: when Angel died his […]
We’d all be better off if we stopped believing in belief
Following last week’s great debate between the GFG religious correspondent, various unbelievers and a handful of don’t-knows [here] it was gripping this morning to sip tea in bed and listen to John Gray arguing that ‘we’d all be better off if we stopped believing in belief’. The ten-minute talk can be heard once more […]
Deathbed visions
In her latest blog post, Sue Brayne, author of the D-Word: Talking About Dying, describes a recent meeting of the Churches’ Fellowship for Psychical and Spiritual Studies. Sue worked with Dr Peter Fenwick in researching into end-of-life experiences (ELEs). Here’s a taster: Our end-of-life experience study included over 800 extraordinary accounts from relatives, nurses, doctors […]
Wring out your dead
Posted by Charles Yesterday (15 September) Hilary Benn asked this question in the House: May we have a statement on reports that the Government propose to ask bereaved relatives, including those on low incomes, for payment when they go to register the death of a loved one? The charge, estimates of which vary from £100 […]
Oh bits from obits
Posted by Jeanne Rathbone Noel Coward said funerals were the cocktail party of his set. James Joyce called them funforals and GB Shaw said ‘ Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh’. I am a Humanist celebrant and have conducted hundreds of […]
Britain’s Youngest Undertaker
Posted by Charles Did you see Britain’s Youngest Undertaker on BBC3? It’s on the iPlayer and it’s worth a look It’s a documentary which follows Mike Ryan’s funeral business in Newport through the awkward experiment of testing the vocation and aptitude of his younger daughter, Rachael. For Mike, this is all about legacy. He’s sixty […]
A picture tells a thousand lies
The Daily Mail captioned a photo of the Mark Duggan funeral A salute to a ‘soldier’: Mourners lined the streets and raised their palms to say farewell to the father-of-four. Implicit was the allegation that this was a gangster salute, something guaranteed to send surges of fear and loathing through the indignation-hungry hearts of its chav-porn-addicted […]
First Darkness
Posted by Denise Wyllie and Clare O Hagan The two Artists and filmmakers Wyllie O Hagan (Denise Wyllie and Clare O Hagan) presented their multi-award winning film First Darkness at the Inaugural London Funeral Exhibition 2011 held at Woodland Burial Parks in Epping Forest on the outskirts of London this Summer. The film forms part of […]
What a rubbish funeral!
Artist Serena Korda collected dust from houses, businesses and institutions, compressing her finds of hair, dead skin and assorted waste products into 500 commemorative bricks. These bricks were displayed as part of the Wellcome Collection’s Dirt: The Filthy Reality of Everyday Life exhibition. Now that the show has reached its end it’s time to dispose of […]
Keeping them honest
Posted by Charles What do we think of e-petitions? Democracy at its finest? A place where the mad, the bad and the rabid can loose off a bit of spleen? Something in between? HM Gov describes e-petitions as “an easy way for you to influence government policy in the UK”. We never supposed our governing […]
