ARKA funeral day this Saturday in Lewes
Bringing Death to Life – 27th August 2011 All Saints Arts and Youth Centre, Friars Walk, Lewes. Free Entry ARKA Original Funerals of Brighton opened its new office in Lansdown Place Lewes, in July this year, with the ceremonies and celebrant company, Light on Life. ARKA Original Funerals and Light on Life are recognised […]
We need to talk about funerals
Posted by Vale But, I hear you say, we do already. All the time. Interminably. And, of course, we do. This website springs from the Good Funeral Guide and the blog is full of discussions about new ways to dispose of bodies, about wild and wonderful flights of imagination in the services that are being […]
Don’t miss the bus
This from Charles Moore in the Spectator, 11 August 2011: Have you noticed how people’s funerals now take place longer and longer after their death? Such delay is not permitted in Judaism or Islam, religions which developed under hot suns, but it is now quite common for Christian or godless crem funerals to be held […]
Rites and riots: the search for meaning
Posted by our religious correspondent, Richard Rawlinson “Show me the manner in which a nation cares for its dead and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender mercies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land, and their loyalty to high ideals.” Sir William Gladstone Following the recent spate of […]
From the heroic to the heartfelt – obits in Iceland
Posted by Vale Can the obituaries published in Icelandic newspapers tell us anything about our changing attitudes to death and dying? Obituaries are a national pastime in Iceland. Every day the leading national newspaper – the Morgungblaðið – publishes pages and pages of them. And they are read avidly. One writer has even claimed that […]
Woo-hoo-logy!
The guys and gals at Eulogy Magazine have run rather a good story to earth and, in the process, attracted a libel threat from the Sue Ryder charity, which they have responded to by proclaiming it in a press release. Nice one, bredren! At the beginning of 2011, Eulogy discovered that Sue Ryder and King’s Court Trust […]
Death and the Riots
Posted by Cadaverous This week, like much of the country, I have been watching the riots that ripped apart our communities. I don’t only mean watching the incessant news updates and reading the reams of angry and insightful comment. I was immersed in events themselves with riot police at both ends of my street, and […]
Who decides when the law is an ass?
Posted by Richard Rawlinson It’s invariably the breaking of rules that’s considered scandalous by the media, whether a tabloid splash about a married celebrity’s romp with a prostitute, or a Guardian scoop about the illegal phone hacking that secured such a story. But sometimes a story is picked up because it’s about the upholding of […]
Horoscopes for the Dead by Billy Collins
Posted by Sweetpea On holiday, I bought myself a new book of poetry by one of my favourite poets, Billy Collins, published by Picador Poetry. What a treat: Every morning since you disappeared for good, I read about you in the daily paper along with the box scores, the weather, and all the bad news. […]
Individuality in the Requiem Mass?
Posted by Richard Rawlinson Réquiem ætérnam dona eis, Dómine (Eternal rest give to them, O Lord). There is often talk about the tone of funerals: the balance between celebrating a life and grieving a loss; the ratio of bespoke parts reflecting individuality, to formulaic parts reflecting the universality of death. Catholics expect this balance in […]
