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31/07/2009

A Funeral at All Hallows Church

[Coping with grief]  [Memorial Services]

[Introduction to funerals]

[How to find Ordsall Church]

(The website If I should die gives a great deal of practical information, including arranging a funeral, memorial pages, grief, and support groups.)

Our approach

We try to ensure that the funeral is as personal and as appropriate as possible to the person who has died, and also to the people who are bereaved.  People are different and so funerals are different.

There are a lot of conventions surrounding funerals.  But they are almost all only conventions.  There are very few absolute requirements.  You don't need to use any of the professional firms or groups or follow anyone else's ways of doing things.  They are all there to help - what is important is that everything is done in a manner which is appropriate and respectful, and sensitive to both the person who has died and those who grieve for them.  

We recognise that people have differing views about religion and differing degrees of adherence to church and faith.  We will always endeavour to respect these perspectives, whilst not compromising the Christian character of the church and the church's officiants at a funeral.

Of course, we have a customary way of taking a funeral and celebrating a person's life.  But every aspect of a funeral may be changed.  Music, for example, or readings and who reads them, the degree to which funerals are formal or more relaxed, who speaks about the person who has died, even the sequence of events (in terms of funeral service, committal, cremation, memorial service), may all be changed by agreement.  We recognise that the funeral is the last thing we can do for someone who has died and we want to get things right.

Funerals may take place in Church or at the crematorium.  Fairly often the main part of the service is held in church, with the committal taking place at the crematorium.  

No matter how the service is done, through it we give thanks for and celebrate the life of the person who has died, and pay our respects for all that they shared with those they loved in their life time.  At the same time we acknowledging the fact and the pain of their death.

What are the practical steps?

In the normal course of events:

1. During the Interregnum at All Hallows the Funeral Director will contact Lavinia Swannack, the church representative responsible for funeral arrangements.  They will tell the Lavinia the name and age of the person who has died; the date, time and place of the funeral; and the name and contact details of the person making the arrangements.
2. The church organist and verger will also be informed of the time and date of the funeral.
3. People who take funerals at All Hallows Church, or at a crematorium on behalf of the church, are:
   • Mr Geoff Richardson (Lay Reader)
   • Mrs Carole Robinson (Lay Reader)
   • Mrs Ann Edwards (Lay Reader)
   • Another member of the clergy, or another local lay reader.
   • If you wish to ask someone you know to lead or take part in the service, or someone known to the person who has died, please do so.  They will be very welcome.
4. The member of the clergy or lay reader responsible for taking the funeral, will make contact with the person making the funeral arrangements.  They will normally visit the person concerned in their home.  This visit is 
   • to meet the family before the funeral, 
   • to discuss what should be said, 
   • to agree the pattern of the service.

We welcome those who wish to speak personally about the person who has died - though the minister taking the service is always willing to speak on your behalf, or to read something you have written.  Whatever you think will be appropriate we will do our utmost to accommodate.

Ordsall Churchyard       

Ordsall churchyard is full and work is in hand to close the churchyard for burials. Graves will still be re-opened where, for example, a person wishes to be put with a partner who had died earlier and where the grave had originally been dug deep enough.  It will continue to be possible to bury cremated remains either in an existing grave or on their own.

 [Plan of the churchyard]  [Some pictures]

[Coping with grief]  [Memorial Services]

[Introduction to funerals]

[How to find Ordsall Church]