Anyone can have a church funeral. God’s love and power extend over all creation and every life is precious to God. There is hope in death as in life.
Even those who share such faith find that there is a real sense of loss at the death of a loved one. A funeral gives us space for our different memories and different feelings of love, grief and respect.

It gives us an opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the life and personality of the person who has died. In a funeral we can acknowledge our loss and sorrow as we say farewell, and we find and provide support and consolation for those who mourn.

When you are arranging a funeral or cremation it is easy to feel pressured into making hurried or costly decisions at a vulnerable time. You need to make sure you have the time and space to think—and talk—things through. It is often very helpful to involve a clergy person at the beginning of those discussions. He or she will have the experience of many funerals, and will be able to offer support and care as well as help with planning the service and experience in dealing with Funeral Directors and Crematorium staff. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it here if you would like to talk to the clergy.

The Church of England’s website has a page about Funerals.

A church funeral will allow you much more time and flexibility than anywhere else. If you want to arrange a funeral in St John’s then we are happy to help. We can plan any kind of funeral from a short and quiet service with only a few members of the family present to an occasion of great solemnity with flowers, choir and organ.

Whatever you plan, costs can quickly mount up and it is important to bear that in mind. All funerals at St John’s are planned with the clergy and considered to be part of the care of the bereaved. That means we can work with you and your Funeral Directors to make sure costs don’t spiral.

Here are some of the options we can offer:

An order of service

We can produce an order of service for a funeral in-house at a substantially cheaper cost than that charged by professional printers.Copies of previous orders of service can be seen in the parish office.

Flowers

Floral arrangements can be arranged for the church at your request. It is customary to have one pedestal of flowers but not uncommon to have two. These vary in cost depending on your selection of flowers from around £55 up to £120.

Music

At St John's we can accommodate virtually all musical requests. A common option at funerals is to have an organ and choir of four choral scholars to accompany three hymns and to sing an anthemn. But we are also used to having many different types of music at funerals and have good contacts with many musicians and singers.

Reception

Quite often at St John's families decide to have the reception after the funeral in church. This makes sure that everyone is there and really helps people to celebrate the life of the person who has died. We can arrange for tea and coffee, sherry, wine or champagne to be served along with nibbles or finger food.
It should be noted that the hospitality area at the west end of the church is not suitable for a full reception. We do, though, have excellent relationships with local pubs, restaurants and hotels and this means we can help and advise families who want a larger scale reception after the funeral.

To explore any of these options please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to arrange to speak to the clergy.

A funeral should always help those of us who remain to live our lives fully. There is also help on this website for when we struggle to live with bereavement.