Cremation: an alternative to burial or an alternative to bother?
There’s a fine new essay by Thomas Lynch in the The Christian Century. It’s as wonderfully well written as you’d expect – seductively so. Much of what he says about the modern funeral he has said before: that it “too often replaces theology with therapy, conviction with convenience.” Here are some extracts to whet your […]
Dead reckoning
No UK funeral director ever went far wrong by slapping a more or less stonking margin on the price of a coffin. Coffins are much cheaper to make than almost anyone would realise. An oak foil veneer MDF coffin with a trade price of £50 looks to any uneducated eye as if it’s easily worth […]
Rocky 3
Once the principal place of worship for Portlanders, who trekked here from earliest times from all parts of the island, St Andrew’s church was severely damaged by a landslip in 1675, but only finally abandoned in the mid-eighteenth century. In its ruined graveyard some of the headstones and monuments bear the skull-and-crossbones motif, a customary […]
Rocky 2
Here’s the Royal Naval cemetery on Portland. Is there a burial ground in the UK which commands better views? There are 65 First World War burials and 103 Second World War burials. Of these, 10 are unidentified, one is a Norwegian merchant navy seaman, and one a member of the Imperial Japanese Navy. There […]
Rocky 1
This blog is on holiday in its seaside cottage on the Isle of Portland. This little island, just four miles long and two wide, is where some of the world’s best limestone has been quarried. Find out what it’s built here. Beauty comes at a price. The devastation of the island goes on (above). Here […]
The bureaucracy of bereavement
Good piece by the George Pitcher in the Daily Telegraph: I’m afraid I slipped into a daydream in church on Easter morn yesterday. It started by wondering how different the story might have been if the Jerusalem of 2,000 years ago was like the London Borough of Bromley today. The idea that Joseph of Arimathea […]
Sense and sustainability – 2
I am incredibly grateful to Cynthia Beal for this long and deeply considered response to this post. I wish I felt I were worth it, Cynthia! But I know that all readers of this blog will find in your words a great deal of food for thought. Dear Charles, Thanks so much for another provocative […]
Skulduggery
Hat-tip to FuneralWise.com for this cheerful story: In Guatemala City, morticians called skullmongers speed to murder scenes looking to snag customers. When rival firms meet on the street, price wars ensue. Some skullmongers offer combos: a coffin, a wake and a funeral for as little as $150. Some mongers even receive tips about murders […]
Promising them the moon
Disturbing reports about China reach me from a contact in the US Pentagon who, for reasons which will become apparent, I cannot identify. The victory of the Communist Party in China marked a clean break with the past, a reinvention of the nation. But some traditions just wouldn’t lie down and die. One of these […]
Sense and sustainability
Cynthia Beal heads up the Natural Burial Company in the United States. She’s a friend of many in this country. This blog is her most ardent admirer. Before becoming a green burialist Cynthia spent a good many years in organic foods. That experience has proved invaluable to her and to many others looking for greener, […]
