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, […]
To ritualise or not to ritualise…
By Richard Rawlinson Ed’s note: Richard wrote this for us at a time when the market in blog posts about ritual was approaching saturation. There’s good stuff here, so we’re posting it now, timeless seasonal greeting and all. …that remains the question. In order to express a meaning you need to establish what the meaning […]
Utterly impersonal and awfully long
I follow The Hearth of Mopsus blog. I like it very much — the writer’s fastidious prose, his rigorous, intellectual objectivity on the one hand, his very earnest doubts and self-questioning on the other. He’s written a very good book about holy wells, by the way. Not your bag? Fine by me. Each to his/her […]
All the world’s a stage
“A couple of parting thoughts on the development of new ritual for secular funerals before I switch off the computer for Christmas,” wrote our religious correspondent, Richard Rawlinson some days before the onset of festivities. Yikes, sorry, Richard; we lost that post in the tinsel. We’re not letting it go, though; your thoughts about […]
A tale of two funerals
Over in Pyongyang mourners wail for the loss of the great leader Kim Jong Il. As Andrew McLaughlin puts it: This is really otherworldly. And terrifying. It’s depressing to be reminded that it’s possible, with energetic and relentless propaganda, surveillance, and oppression, to delude vast numbers of human beings into genuine feelings of attachment to, […]
Reinventing ritual
Here is a long extract from the Sunday Times article by Jenni Russell about the necessity for, and power of, ritual. I went to an astounding funeral last month. Philip Gould, the pollster who helped to create new Labour, died in November. He knew he was dying and he knew just how he wanted to […]
Hail and farewell to the Mystery Mourner
Inspired by the format of Come Dine With Me, Guardian commenter BaddHamster is “currently developing a variation on the theme called, Come Pine With Me, where four recently bereaved people take turns visiting each others’ funerals and rating each other on the booze, grub, style of coffin, service, general mourning etc…” It’s a nice idea, and […]
The extra-rational power of ritual
By Richard Rawlinson Our host has suggested I write a post on the ‘extra-rational power of ritual’ – extra-rational being the function of the brain termed our imagination as opposed to the function that’s purely rational; ritual being the act of sanctifying actions – even ordinary actions – so that they have meaning. To sanctify, […]
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 […]
All things to all people?
Posted by Richard Rawlinson For better or worse, depending on your viewpoint, you know where you stand with both civil and Catholic funerals – give or take a few 1,000 variations on a theme. However, I’m not sure what to make of this organisation, and would be interested to hear your take on it. For […]
