My first funeral
Posted by John Porter I think a personal reflective piece is in order following my delivery yesterday of my first fee-paying funeral ceremony as a recently qualified Funeral Celebrant. I will not forget it for several reasons. The first reason is that I was sunning myself beside a swimming pool on a sun-drenched Greek island when […]
Branding
Posted by John Porter Strangeways prison, Manchester 1982, pre riot. I was a student on placement and during my first week asked an officer what the red and white cards meant outside each cell. “White means CofE and red is for ‘left-footers’ – Catholic.” Nothing for Jewish, Muslim, Sikh or any other religious flavour! I saw “HIV” on […]
Yer gotta hav it!
Guest post by John Porter Anyone who says to me “You have to”, I nearly always reply with “why?” and then “why?” again! The fact is I don’t have to do anything. I can choose whether to or not – that’s different. “Not so,” I hear some say, “you have to have car insurance – […]
Give others a chance to help pay for child funerals
What an interesting debate that was, the one about whether undertakers and celebrants should charge for the funerals of children. A great many people followed it silently; the 25 comments represent a tiny fraction of the overall readership. The debate was not conducted on a level of dispassionate logic, so neither side prevailed, but the heart-over-head […]
At last, another celebrant trainer
A flurry of forwarded emails flies into our inbox. “What do you think of this?!?” they all demand. This? The NFFD’s freshly launched celebrant training venture. The consensus is that it stinks. What do we think? Well, let’s have a look. The NFFD’s given reason for entering the celebrant training market is “growing demand”. Some […]
Responsibility for your own conduct
By celebrant Wendy Coulton of Dragonfly FuneralsThe Plymouth Herald ran a story recently about a family complaint that the funeral service for their relative was disrupted by the loud and distracting sound of laughter and conversation outside by a large number of people waiting to attend the next funeral. They included senior leading council figures because the […]
Mother of all swear words
Posted by Wendy Coulton Recently I had a dilemma in that a funeral I was planning and conducting was for someone who was known among their close friends for using the expletive C*** (C U Next Tuesday) with affection and as a genuine term of endearment. I winced when I heard this because it is the […]
Doing them justice
Over on the Mindfulness and Mortality blog, in a discussion about funeral eulogies, Gloriamundi asks a good question: “Why do we seem to feel the need to sum up a life and pass judgement on it?” He goes on: “The torrent of unqualified praise that falls on someone who has just died is an expression […]
A new choice of funeral venue for bereaved of Plymouth
Devonport’s historic Guildhall is to be offered as a venue for funerals. Built in 1822, the Grade 1 listed building has, over the years, served as a town hall, magistrates court, library and even a mortuary. It is now a community hub which hosts exhibitions, community group activities, events, weddings and conferences. The initiative has been […]
What’s for love and what’s for money?
If there’s one thing that really vexes people in the funerals business it’s the question of who gets paid for what – and how much. Take the business of conducting a funeral. In England, when C of E clergy moved their fee up to £160 + travel, lots of people howled. Everyone in England is […]
