As a celebrant in Birmingham, I meet many families in many different circumstances. Sometimes a family is grief-stricken and needs a lot of guidance. Other times, their loved one’s passing may be a relief. Occasionally, I walk into a family at war… and others, there may be no family to deal with at all. But […]
Several generations ago it was normal to die at home. Now death is sanitised and removed, and along with that comes an unwillingness to face the subject at all. That’s not a good thing, as we are less able to cope, and certainly, we are reticent as a culture to discuss the inevitable. How sad […]
1. We Have Time For You We have time to do it properly. Clergy men and women have church business to attend to, weekly services to write and pastoral care to undertake. The majority of them do great jobs, but when you have to juggle so much other work, it’s impossible to provide (at least […]
Sometimes when I give my talks, I ask people to put their hand up if they believe they are immortal. Of course, nobody does. And then I ask people to put their hand up if they are comfortable with the fact they aren’t immortal. The results vary. And then I ask people to put their […]
I recently went to a family funeral – a beloved old aunty who had charmed me as a child with her stories, songs, eccentric antics and sheer love of life. Aunty Marg, as she was fondly known, was the ‘mad’ one of the family. When we grew up, we initially dismissed her as being a […]