The modern funeral is a grief-bypass procedure?
Stewart Dakers is a 76 year-old voluntary community worker with a weekly column in the Guardian. He wrote a piece in last week’s Spectator about funerals. Here’s a taster: Funerals ain’t what they used to be. Today’s emphasis is more on celebrating a life past than honouring the future of a soul. While I am not […]
Frankly speaking
In a report published today the Work and Pensions Committee says the UK Government should follow the lead of the Scottish Government and conduct a broad review of burials, cremations and funerals, with a view to making changes that have a long-term impact on funeral inflation and reduce funeral poverty. The Committee also says evidence […]
What to wear for a funeral
Guest post by Wendy Coulton Choosing what to wear when conducting a funeral is an important aspect as a professional and for the bereaved I am serving. Advice which stuck with me when I was trained as a funeral celebrant was that I am not mourning and therefore it is not a requirement for me […]
Womb to tomb
Posted by John Porter This is the most exploitative time of our year. Everyone gladly leaps onto the bandwagon and we cheer each other into debt. The orgy of gift opening on the day is extraordinary. Children rip open expensive toys that leave almost nothing to their imaginations. Within minutes they start to play with the […]
Tradition is a guide, not a jailer
When Lawrence Llewelyn Bowen was at large on tv’s Changing Rooms, it was not unusual for people to weep when they saw what he’d done to their living room and, through their tears, defiantly declare that, first chance they got, they were going go out and buy 5 litres of brilliant white. Not all, mind. […]
Fire & Water
Posted by John Porter I am an archer. I am a funeral celebrant. The last funeral I facilitated was of Thelma, my archery coach. She used to coach the British archery team many years ago. The chairman of Tonbridge Archers led the tribute and, much to everyone’s surprise (he was renowned for “going on at […]
Mother of all swear words
Posted by Wendy Coulton Recently I had a dilemma in that a funeral I was planning and conducting was for someone who was known among their close friends for using the expletive C*** (C U Next Tuesday) with affection and as a genuine term of endearment. I winced when I heard this because it is the […]
A question of timing
It can’t be easy writing episodes for soaps. You have to take over a plot designed by a committee and steer your characters through the storyline as plausibly as you can. Sometimes you have to get rid of them, a procedure known as ‘killing off’. You mostly don’t have to actually do them in, you […]
What do you want at your funeral?
Guest blogger RR writes today for ‘the silent majority of consumers’. With the plethora of funeral options, some people choose to give their own send-off advance thought and leave instructions to their next of kin. This brief survey aims to focus the mind on some of the boxes that might need to be ticked. If […]
Being A Man
Posted by MC I am not a new man, according to my wife. To qualify as someone who is even slightly in touch with his feminine side, I would have to empty the kitchen bin. Without being asked. It’s not an especially good time to be a man. I knew we were in trouble when I […]
