CEREMONIES
A ceremony in keeping with the person who has died lies at the heart of a good funeral...
There are no rules. We try to give families the freedom to do whatever feels right. If a religious service is not appropriate we can take the ceremony or help you to. The ceremony can take place in a church, in a field, a hall or your home. Wherever seems appropriate.
We are neither Christian nor Humanist. That is to say, we are neither wholly one nor the other, so are happy doing a full religious service, or one without any mention of God.
We owe a great deal to the Quaker notion of speaking truth, the Christian sense of hope, and the Humanist belief in an individual’s potential. We believe that people have important things to say to each other, but in our busy modern lives are starved of the time and opportunity to do so. A funeral can create the right conditions to say these things.
When somebody dies, no matter how many times we have been through it before, or how prepared we think we are, it is always like a punch to the heart. But within this pain is a huge potential for emotional growth. The unimportant drops away, and we can see that all that matters is our relationships with each other.
It is not achievement or status that defines our lives, but love, either the overflow or the absence. If there was enough love in a life, this needs to be highlighted and celebrated, If there wasn’t, that too needs to be aired, as it has profound implications for how we treat each other, and how we live the rest of our lives. This has nothing at all to do with whether we believe in a God or not, and everything to do with believing in people.
We think that one brief, shared moment of truth is worth more than hours of comforting fluff.
We feel that death lies at the heart of our humanity.
We acknowledge the complexity of our lives, and the need for understanding and forgiveness.
We believe in the redemptive, healing power of words.
