Funeral

In my Father’s house there are many rooms.’  John 14:2

Bereavement sadly affects all of us at some point in our life, the death of a loved one whether it be a member of your family or a friend is often a distressing time for both families and individuals.

As the Church of England Parishes here in Pontefract, many people call upon the services of one of our clergy to conduct a funeral for them either in Church, the Crematorium, or even by the graveside. Services led by the clergy can bring great comfort as we support them through their bereavement.

We understand that every life is precious and as someone dies, they leave a space in the lives of others. While the close of the persons life will be sad, we want to ensure that you remember the whole person, as we celebrate their life, and hold firm to the hope that we have as Christians.

From the moment you are in touch with us, throughout the funeral service, and for as long as you need us afterwards, we’re here for you, it is our job to make the process as easy and straightforward as we can to ease the burden you are bearing.

How we can help

More often than not, the first point where we get involved in a funeral is when one of the Funeral Directors contact us. At this point we will look for a suitable date and time, where both the Church / Clergy and Funeral Directors diaries match.

However, if you have a loved one who is coming to the close of their life, and you would like a member of our clergy team to come out to say prayers with them and the family (often known as Last Rites) then please get in touch with us directly and we will come out as soon as possible to you.

Once we have a date and time agreed the priest who will be conducting the service will contact you to arrange a time to meet. During this meeting we will discuss all the arrangements from the service through to talking about the persons life. If you feel able then we always encourage you to make some notes about the person.

This could include information about their interest, what they enjoyed, stories about things they did, and anything else you want to tell us.

We are also able to create an Order of Service for you, this will include the information about the service, words of Hymns, Psalms and Prayers that will be used in the funeral itself. Whilst the inside will be black and white, on the front and back covers, these will be colour and work well with an image or two of the person (perhaps a recent one on the front, and an older one on the back).

There is a small charge for these, but we know that organising a funeral is often very expensive, so we want to help you by not only creating them for you, but also ensuring that where we can, we keep additional costs down for you. If you would like us to do these for you, then please ask about them when we visit.

In respect of the rest of the arrangements, we will guide you through the process and answer all of your questions. It may be the first time you have had to do this, and you may feel that some questions are inappropriate or perhaps daft. Please believe us when we say there is no such thing as an inappropriate or daft question. As a team we have considerable experience in dealing with funerals, ensuring families have the answers to any questions they may have. We are only too happy to help you, and ensure that in the busyness of all that you need to do, that we take any stress that we can out of the process for you.

After we have met with you, you are under our care as you prepare to say goodbye, so you can reach out to us whenever you want. This promise of support doesn’t finish after we have conducted the funeral for you, if you need us afterwards, then all you have to do is pick up the phone.

‘I am the resurrection and the life,’ says the Lord. ‘Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.’ John 11.25, 26