is consuming in its urgency; its advent leaves none unchanged. Other priorities are set aside, and attention is forced, like it or not, upon the immediacy of what has occurred.
The angry, the dazed, the relieved, the numb – all look for help; and when they seek that help from the Christian people of God, they expect to receive all the compassion that our humanity commands. God in Christ calls us to offer more. The Church’s funeral rites provide more than a dignified farewell to the deceased and quiet sympathy to the bereaved.
The Christian understanding of our creaturehood leads us to believe that life and death and resurrection are all in the hands of God. Life and death and resurrection are therefore theological concerns, and in Christian understanding must be linked with the life and death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.
The funeral rites offered here take their stance from these primary beliefs. They relate each instance of human death to the death of Jesus. There is an evangelical dimension to the Christian funeral; it is the proclamation of Christ’s victory over death in which he binds the strength of death before plundering death of its spoils (cf. Mark 3.27). Christ’s death is an offering for all, making all death an offering to God. His death transforms what we naturally fear and resent. The pain of death and bereavement is not diminished by this, but it is transformed.
Nor is the call to the risen life issued to the dead alone. The bereaved, too, are called to newness of life. ‘Returning to normal’ is not a Christian option. The old normality can never be recovered, for God is making all things new.
The ministry of the Church at the funeral is therefore to proclaim the story of Christ, setting the deceased’s story within it, to speak of Christ’s death and this death, to speak of the resurrection, the light in the darkness. We minister best to the bereaved not by vague generalities, but by careful attention to the details that made up the life of the deceased. We must not ignore the ways in which grief comes, nor must we forget the word of forgiveness, which the deceased and bereaved alike need to speak and to hear. ‘Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.’ With the death of another we are reminded of that judgement to which we are summoned. We all stand in need of the mercy and forgiveness of God. The measure by which we forgive is the measure by which we are forgiven.
In part it is the responsibility of the liturgist to devise rites that will enable these considerations to be properly addressed. Whoever leads the service needs to take the structure of the rite and apply it to the particular circumstances of death.
For all these reasons a short homily or sermon is to be provided. For many this is problematic. There is a temptation to offer something along the lines of a sanctified obituary notice. The old tag ‘nothing but good of the dead’ becomes the prevailing imperative, and the need for forgiveness is obscured – one might almost say eradicated – as ‘beatification precedes interment’.
The task of the preacher is to tell the story of the dead person honestly, and to frame that narrative in the story of Jesus, whose death and resurrection assure us that our death is not God’s last word.
What we say here addresses the central questions of the funeral and offers a Christian answer. ‘Where is daddy now?’ and ‘What will God do to our friend?’ are questions that will be asked whether we wish it or not. We need to be ready to speak of God’s love in Christ from which not even death can separate us (Romans 8.38–39). If we do not offer Christ’s answer to the questioner, in what sense has the funeral been a Christian one?
If we do not lead people to the love of God, where is that hope of which Scripture speaks?
Prayers at (or immediately after) the Time of Death
Pastoral Note
Those called to lead prayers at the time of death will hope to make every effort to prepare the dying person. If possible and appropriate, Holy Communion may be shared with friends and family as part of this preparation. A short order may be used immediately after the opening sentences. Normally, this should follow the forms authorized by the appropriate Christian tradition.
Friends and members of the family may want to stay a while after these prayers, and can be encouraged to do so if this is their wish. When death has not occurred at home, the minister may speak to nurses or other care staff about arrangements for privacy and quiet. Chapels or quiet rooms are often available.
Words and actions which are appropriate before death will differ from what is appropriate at the time of death or in the period of grief after death has occurred.
As one example of this, a prayer or other proclamation that releases or surrenders a person to their maker and redeemer is often a help both to the dying and to those who watch at their side.
Shape of the Rite
Opening Scriptures
[Holy Communion]
Simeon’s Song – Nunc Dimittis
The Lord’s Prayer
Prayers of Offering and Farewell
Blessing
Opening Scriptures
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has the human heart imagined those things which God has prepared for those who love him.
1 Corinthians 2.91
From the ends of the earth I call to you
when my heart faints:
O set me on the rock that is higher than I.
Psalm 61.22
[Holy Communion]
Holy Communion may be offered at this point.
Simeon’s Song
Now, Lord, you let your servant go in peace:
your word has been fulfilled.
My own eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared in the sight of every people:
a light to reveal you to the nations
and the glory of your people Israel.
Nunc Dimittis3
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those
who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen.
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Prayers