The Rt Revd Steven Croft, Bishop of Sheffield, has <a href="http://www.sheffield.anglican.org/blog/bishop-of-sheffield/grave-talk?utm_source=Daily+Media+Digest&utm_campaign=0e33d05a92-&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_296e14724b-0e33d05a92-248597717&ct=t()" target="_blank">posted this blog...
Discover what others are thinking and saying about death, dying and funerals, and find out how to submit your own thoughts.
The funeral of Philip Bradbourn has caused a stir in the press recently. The MEP died just before Christmas and had a cremation service in January. It was reported that there had been a mix up at the mortuary and in fact the body of Philip Bradburn had been taken and was contained in the coffin that should have had Philip Bradbourn.
Every week in the Diocese of Lichfield, our clergy and readers take an average over 160 funerals, yet when meeting with family members, people seldom consider how they will meet the funeral and associated costs. According to SunLife's report Cost of Dying 2014, death-related expenses now average
This is a moving and deeply honest piece, published in <em>Reform</em> magazine, written by David Goodbourn in the face of terminal cancer. 'Parting Thoughts' was published in 2013: David sadly died in November 2014. <a href="http://www.reform-magazine.co.uk/2013/10/parting-thoughts/" targe
From the middle of November, shops, media and advertising collude to convince us that Christmas is magical, full of joy and fulfilment. Cares are banished and laughing children reinforce the message that sadness and anxiety have no place in the festivities. But what if bereavement means that sorr
In the last few years, I have increasingly encouraged members of my congregation to consider having a vigil eucharist on the night before their funeral. We are not an Anglo-Catholic parish, where the practice of a vigil has been more common, but I have found it to be enormously powerful for the mour
My name is Richard Reakes and I am currently Team Vicar of Bishop's Cleeve in Gloucestershire, but prior to this I was a funeral director for twenty-eight years and ran my family business in Somerset. During that time I served for a while as regional chairman of The British Institute of Funeral Directors.
