We know best
The funeral industry commissions very few surveys. When it does, they are about what bereaved people are doing, not what bereaved people want. These surveys are almost always self-serving and, if spun well, appeal to lazy journalists. Result: free advertising. This is something the GFG has taken up with broadsheet journalists to no effect. Why […]
Do women write better about death than men?
At the Telegraph Hay Festival last weekend, Martin Amis opined that women write better about sex than men. They do so, he said, with greater sincerity. Men get carried away showing off their writerly potency. This set me wondering whether female celebrants write better, more emotionally articulate funerals than men. Amis went on to say: […]
Does this make the case for a secular funeral ritual?
Here’s an interesting and stimulating view of funerals from Guardian commenter Sussexperson: Each to their own, and all that, but there are serious flaws in the “capturing the person” style of funeral. I’ve been involved in a depressingly large number of those over recent years, so can speak from bitter experience. You don’t, as a […]
What about those Interfaithers?
Another controversial post by Richard Rawlinson When religion is broached here in relation to secular funerals, I observe a few commentators opining the fact religion in this context tends to be referring to Judeo-Christian monotheism rather than wider discussion of faiths from New Age sects to Buddhism and Hinduism. I’d also welcome informed bloggers across […]
The pain passes, the beauty remains
The reasons why most of us require the presence of a dead body at a funeral are well rehearsed. There’s more to this than force of habit. In a nutshell, the dead body concentrates the mind and brings appropriate intensity to the occasion. It’s an ordeal, but an emotionally buy tadalafil 100mgvaluable ordeal. Take it away […]
By what magic can a personal experience be communicated to another?
”The priest presents for consideration a compound of inherited forms with the expectation (or, at times, even requirement) that one should interpret and experience them in a certain authorized way, whereas the artist first has an experience of his own, which he then seeks to interpret and communicate through effective forms. Not the forms […]
What I Want From A Funeral Director
Posted by Gloria Mundi Another opinionated passage from a sometimes-frustrated celebrant. Please remember – it’s only my opinion! So with apologies to some wonderful funeral directors I know, here goes. I am not anti-funeral directors. I think their job is frequently stressful and demanding in ways the rest of us may hardly understand. Also, some […]
Publishing event of the year!
The Natural Death Handbook, Fifth Edition A thoroughly updated and revised edition of the Natural Death Centre‘s celebrated handbook. Now presented alongside a new collection of essays on death, dying and funeral practices by doctors, historians, authors, poets, theologians and artists including Richard Barnett, David Jay Brown, Dr Sheila Cassidy, Charles Cowling, Bill Drummond, Stephen Grasso, […]
Priests and secular celebrants
By Richard Rawlinson Today’s elderly, even when not religious, are more likely to choose a funeral conducted by a priest (pastor/vicar depending on denomination) than a secular celebrant. Given the choice between a person in a robe or business suit, they opt for the former. Their decision seems as natural to them as taking the […]
The case for a secular funeral ritual
Though secular people are increasingly saying no to a religious funeral, we note that it’s taking them forever to do it. Why so? Because, though they reject the theology, they like the ritual. Ritual is the antidote to chaos. It brings order. Everyone knows what to do. When death turns our life upside down, convention conquers […]
