It can be a challenge to compose a funeral or memorial service when you know the gathered group will have a range of religious persuasions. In many cases, even the gathered family is not all on the same page with respect to religious beliefs.
Those who have left the church hope the service will not be full of language they find burdensome or even offensive. Those who have clung to the traditional ways want and need to hear the traditional words of scripture and comfort. With care, it is possible to strike a balance, using language that can be construed as each person present chooses to hear it.
P: We have gathered here today to give thanks for and honor Name’s life. You have come because you are family – close family or extended family; or because you are friends – old, long-trusted friends or newer friends; or because you knew Name through other connections in his life. We have gathered to mourn his death and to grieve for our loss.
read moreI recently conducted the funeral for my father, who died after a long episode of declining health. It was a joy and a privilege to work with my family in preparing this service. But many of our family are not avowedly Christian so I wanted to respect their spiritual traditions as well as be faithful to my own. I also wanted the theology to reflect my own liberal/progressive Christian understanding.
read moreEach birth causes us to wonder
where the spark of life comes from.
Every death makes us wonder
what of that life survives.
What we have done, and who we have been,
remains part of the wider universe long after we are gone.
None of us knows the whole truth about what lies beyond death.
Christians believe that as we journey between life and death,
we are safe in the hands of an infinitely gracious God.
What we do know and believe is that every human life,
with a mind to think and a heart to love,
is an expression of the creative spirit of God.
