Another Church of England vicar comes out against modern, “celebratory” funerals
One Father Ed Tomlinson received widespread attention for lambasting humanist funerals on his blog back in October (the BHA responded with a defence of the personalised, celebratory nature of humanist funerals).
Now, Bishop of Chester, Reverend Peter Forster, has similarly criticised modern funeral services for skimping on “proper solemnity” by hand picking music and poetry to the family’s liking, rather than using the Church stuff that he likes. Bishop Forster (who has previously been investigated over homophobic comments and made the highest level of expenses claims of bishops in the House of Lords for 2008-09) seems primarily criticising Christians who don’t realise that his Church believes in bodily resurrection (rather than the detachment of a disembodied soul upon death) but he does also pick out the “celebratory” and personal aspects of modern services for criticism.
He wrote: “My mind has been concentrated by another experience, which is becoming more common: to go to a funeral, only to find that the cremation or burial has taken place earlier in the day, and the funeral has become a celebration of the deceased’s life.
“Why does this jar with me so much? There have always been occasions when of necessity a funeral has been held without a body, but that seems different from a deliberate decision to hold a small private ‘funeral’ before a larger ‘celebration’ or ‘commemoration’. I think there are several reasons why I regret this new trend in our society, and especially when it invades the Church.
“Firstly, it easily gives the impression that our bodies don’t matter much, that the essential ‘me’ is a disembodied soul or spirit. It was precisely such a view, common in the ancient world, that (like Judaism) Christianity rejected. I believe in the resurrection of the body: that statement is not in the Creed for nothing. It emphasises that we are created, taken from the dust of the earth, and that it is this world which God has chosen to redeem and re-create.
“We are not spiritual chips off some cosmic block longing to return home: we are sacred individuals, made in God’s image, body, soul and spirit.
“Secondly, these new funeral practices can seem to put death to one side, to ignore or even deny its reality. Some poems read at funerals give the same impression: ‘I have only slipped into the next room’, etc. Some music chosen at funerals likewise seems out of place, missing the proper solemnity which should mark the death of a child of God.”
The British Humanist Association’s Humanist Ceremonies network provides humanist wedding and partnership celebrations and funeral and memorial services for the non-religious. The BHA also campaigns for reform of marriage laws and for full equality under the law between same sex civil partnerships and marriage.
On the contrary,surely those who believe in bodily resurrection are the ones who are putting death to one side.