Secular funerals ‘growing trend’

Press, 6 December 1989, Page 57

Secular funerals ‘growing trend’

NZPA-AAP London The move to Godless funerals led to a cremation service for someone with an interest in ballroom dancing ending with 33 mourners doing the tango to taped music, according to the British Humanist Association. The growing trend in Britain of having funerals without God has led to the London company opening a branch in the English countryside. The association has set up an office Ikm from Salisbury Cathedral in Wiltshire for people wanting to hold non-religious funerals. It is the first branch office and

the group expects it Won’t be the last. A reputation of being one of the most religious-minded countries in the world takes a pounding when the British Humanist Association says it has 40,000 members. ’ It claims the number of people inquiring about secular funeralshas quadrupled in recent years creating a shortage of “officiants” — lay people prepared to take the ceremonies. “We have 87 officiants but we need 8700,” the association’s national co-ordinator Ms Maeve Denby, told “The Independent” newspaper.

“We are getting around 400 inquiries a week. "People are beginning to realise by word of mouth mainly, that they have a choice. They really can have the kind of service they want.” The association wants sensitive people prepared to work in harrowing conditions for £25 ($69.90) a service. “We don’t want anyone too macabre,” Ms Denby said. Applicants must be willing to “put in the hours” to talk to the bereaved in order to write an individual script for the ceremony.

The idea is to personalise the funeral service as a direct response to the clients’ wishes. If customers want to mark the passing of a loved one with jazz or rock music, so be it. Ms Denby, who has performed about 700 ceremonies herself, said the first was a nightmare. There was a power cut just as the deceased was disappearing through the curtains. But the electricity came back on a few moments later and the coffin started t to return towards the congregation. The bewildered organist promptly launched into a brighter tune.