Back to business after the ‘blitz’
Posted by Richard Rawlinson It may be the 300th anniversary of the completion of Sir Christopher Wren’s St Paul’s Cathedral but 2011 will be remembered as the year the great building closed to the public for the first time since the Blitz due to health and safety fears after anti-capitalist protesters set up camp on […]
Is it snowing yet?
Hands up, who here has a business continuity plan? Ok a few hands, but half of you have already fallen asleep. Well before you do nod off have a look at this from the Connecticut newspaper, the Hartford Courant. Last week there were early and unexpected snowstorms across the state. Snow isn’t unusual but this […]
Habeas corpse
Funeral arrangements for many Brits must take into account the sometimes violently conflicting wishes, needs and loyalties of the various members of blended families. Compromise can sometimes be hard to reach, the more so when one party sets out to hijack the funeral and do it their way. It’s worse for Ghanaians. There, it’s the […]
Dying Large
Very nice piece here by Wendy Dennis in the Huffington Post. I must have crossed some kind of age threshold, because when I go to funerals lately, I start thinking about my own. It’s not the dying part that scares me. It’s the numbers I’ll draw for the service. I’m in the sanctuary and the […]
The Surprising Satisfactions of a Home Funeral
Posted by Vale “So a few weeks before Bob died, my 15-year-old son, Harper, and I made a coffin out of plywood and deck screws from Home Depot…We routed rabbet joints for a tight construction. “I guess we wouldn’t want him falling out the bottom,” Harper said. “That would reflect poorly on our carpentry skills,” […]
My way or the highway
Posted by Richard Rawlinson, religious correspondent The was once a funeral sermon by a US Catholic priest in which he berates those members of the congregation who are only in church because it’s a loved one’s funeral, but whose own souls are in mortal danger after skipping Mass on a regular basis. Some might be […]
I’m not religious but there’s something about funerals…
Posted by Belinda Forbes From the moment I had booked myself onto a course to become a secular funeral celebrant, it started happening. Like when you get married, get pregnant or get a puppy. Suddenly everywhere you turn, it’s about weddings, what the expectant mum shouldn’t eat or drink, and how you should never play […]
Words, words, words
First posted by Charles on 9 Feb 2010 I’m putting this back up as a contribution to recent debates started by Jose and Richard. Following my post about the ineptitude and ineffectiveness of words, I stumbled on this piece in the Sydney Morning Herald. It’s actually about citizenship ceremonies, but you’d never guess it from […]
Should the British mourn or celebrate their dead?
Posted by Jose Antonio Estevez Garcia When my best friend died at the age of 38 it was a drama – not only his unexpected loss but also his funeral which, far from helping us to face that moment, only added more pain to those grievous days. The reason is quite simple: when Angel died his […]
What do atheists profess?
Posted by Richard Rawlinson, religious correspondent Vale makes interesting points in the thread beneath my Beyond the Abyss post, which discusses the gap between secularist individuality and religious communal ritual: We (I) believe that community and the communal celebration of key events is important – yet secularism, at least as it finds expression in the […]
