Camref – the Campaign for Real Funerals
The departing board chairman of Golden Charter funeral plans offers this cold sweat-inducing warning to independent funeral directors in a valedictory address in the Golden Charter newsletter, Goldenews, which we are grateful to have had forwarded to us. He says: Co-op and Dignity have both acquired significant additional scale, and unquestionably they are operating with a […]
Raising the money in hard times
Anne Dunbar, co-owner of a funeral home in the Dayton suburb of Springfield, Ohio, reports that 15 to 20 families a year now ask that newspaper obituaries include a plea for contributions toward funeral expenses. It’s not uncommon, in the US, for families to raise money for a funeral, and here’s a new way of doing […]
Not so cunning after all?
Posted by Charles Money’s fallen on hard times. It’s not breeding like rabbits any more. What’s bad news for savings has got to be bad news for funeral plans too. Pay now, die later was never going to be a good way to go for the funeral trade because when a person buys their own […]
What does it cost to run a crematorium?
Here’s an extract from a feasibility review conducted by Rugby Borough Council Jan 2010, which plans to build a new crematorium. The review gives us useful info about how these things are costed: Staffing: “It is proposed that the number of staff recommended would be: 1 Manager, 1 Administration Officer, 1 Operative “With on-costs this […]
Top tips for funeral shoppers
Josh Slocum, Executive Director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance in the USA, is a major hero to all who toil at the GFG-Batesville Tower. Here he is talking on the telly about funeral pricing and home funerals. It’s interesting to note the similarities with the British funeral industry, in particular consumers’ disapproval of the marking […]
Let’s make the case for funerals
Guest post by Rupert Callender, owner of The Green Funeral Company. Often this blog can trot nicely along with the usual suspects commenting dryly from the sidelines, a good natured conversation amongst friends. It’s easy to forget it has a wide, international readership, easy that is, until a seemingly innocuous post unleashes a Bay of […]
Crematoria need to offer a drop-off service. Will they?
We can speculate why it is that, in so-called advanced societies, the conventional funeral as an event is something dead people are increasingly bypassing. The point is that it’s happening, and demand for direct cremation (deathbed to incinerator) is growing. It is growing especially among educated liberal thinkers, precisely the constituency which was the first […]
C of E raises funeral fee to £160
The Church of England’s General Synod has just announced a rise in the fee payable to a priest for officiating at a funeral to £160. The fee takes into account both admin and also the heating and lighting of the church. There’s no information available yet on whether this fee will apply also to crematorium […]
Abusua do funu – The family loves the corpse
Mr Mensah a retired head teacher in Kwahu-Tafo, died in 1995 in Accra, where he was receiving medical treatment. His body was deposited in a mortuary for about a month. During that period, his children organized a full facelift of the house to prepare it for a worthy funeral: the roof and other parts […]
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, […]
