funerals

It's time to play down the religious content of funeral services at crematoria. I am invited to conduct an increasing number of such events for people who have had no connection with religion during their lives, and ought not to be troubled with it in their death.  It is pointless to recite sentences from the Bible, and use traditional churchy jargon, when mourners have little idea what we are talking about. Religion, and its ideas and language are things we inflict on mourners, who sit with a glazed expression, getting no comfort from what is said. It would be better to use words and images that are familiar to them, because death is a natural event in the rourse of life, and it should not be veiled in medieval religion. People may have been with their loved ones at the end of their lives and hopefully how peaceful and 'ordinary' the end can be. We can surely fashion a funeral service which takes account of its mystery and sadness, but which also points to the natural passing from this stage of life to the next, without confusing it with strange stuff from St Paul and  the psalms. The aim should be to focus on the life and achievements of the deceased, and bring out his/her humanity, sense of humour, and general interests. Human beings are endlessly interesting, and even the most modest life can carry a good story to be told at the funeral. There are, of couse, selfish rogues in whose lives there has been little virtue. It is no part of our task to pass judgment, but there is always room for honest assessment. The hope dscribed in the life and teaching of Jesus is simple enough to make the service memorable, without baffling people with clerical robes, obscure rituals and what is virtually a foreign language. Funeral directors tell me that people are icreasingly asking for humanist services, which can be chillingly bleak and hopeless. The bereaved may have an instinct that life continues in some form after death, but they think traditional religion as being virtually meaningless. Their emotions are already in shreds. Their minds may be similarly shredded, by faux religion.  Rev Ian Gregory, retired Congregational minister