Alternative Funerals
Some people believe that a religious service is required by law but this is not the case. Your A.W. Lymn funeral director can help you arrange a non-religious or a part-religious funeral.
Why choose a non-religious funeral?
Families may choose a part-religious ceremony for their beloved one. This may be appropriate for someone who has no belief in a Deity, God or other ‘higher being’, possibly being Agnostic, Atheist, Communist or Humanist.
On occasions the family of a suicide may desire a simple service, feeling that a religious service may not be appropriate and that a non-religious ceremony may fulfil their needs.
A non-religious ceremony can be held in ‘any place that is capable of holding a coffin and a group of mourners with dignity’, the final disposal of the deceased often assisting choice of location.
- For Cremation it would seem logical to hold the ceremony in the Crematorium chapel, crematoria often having the facility to cover religious symbols with covers or blinds or indeed remove them altogether.
- For Burial, a simple graveside ceremony may be appropriate. Other options would be to hold the ceremony in the family home, the funeral director’s premises or in a local hall or community centre.
Any person can conduct a non-religious ceremony, including:
- A close relative of the deceased who may wish to officiate with other members of the family or friends.
- A funeral director
- A Civil Funeral Celebrant offering ‘a funeral, which is driven by the wishes, beliefs and values of the deceased and their family, not by the beliefs or ideology of the person conducting the funeral.’.
Civil funeral celebrants
A Civil Funeral Celebrant will be happy to include religious material as well as carrying out non-religious ceremonies, leading the ceremony according to each family’s requirements.
Research has shown that approximately half of all Civil Funerals do in fact have some religious content such as a prayer or hymn.
