An interview with Thomas G. Long, author of Accompany Them With Singing – The Christian Funeral. from Westminster John Knox Press on Vimeo.
Thomas G Long here, one of this blog’s great heroes. Though he comes at funerals from a Christian viewpoint, most of his ideas have a universal application.
He talks about the growing practice in the US to have a funeral without a body (though with ashes, often). That’s not happening to any great extent over here in the UK. But there is a conversation to be had about the role and purpose of a body at a funeral. In most UK crematoria it is set well apart from, and never in the body of, the audience. It is present, but not involved. There’s a lack of conviction in this, a grudging acquiescence, you could say.
Great to hear Mr Long talk of funeral directors (and priests) who get it.
