From the Revd David Primrose
Sir, - It was good to read the Revd Dr Rachel Mann's plea for a
more honest approach to death (Comment, 15
August). Here in the diocese of Lichfield, our clergy take more
funerals than those of any other English diocese: 37 clergy are
each responsible for more than 50 funerals a year. Many parishes
have developed their own ministries, both practical and pastoral,
around terminal illnesses and bereavement. In May, more than 11,000
people came to the cathedral after a local teenager, Stephen
Sutton, died.
Earlier this year, 25 parishes piloted GraveTalk for the Church
of England's Funerals Project: a café space to talk about death,
dying, and funerals. More than 500 participants valued the
opportunity to share thoughts and listen to others in a safe and
structured context. The material is now out for trial in four more
dioceses, before being launched nationally next year.
Currently, we have a small group working on what it means to be
a "death-confident congregation", so that our churches can be hubs
of open conversation and meaningful hope for their local
communities. The Dying Matters Coalition campaign illustrates the
importance of a more honest approach to death - and our
chaplaincies and parish churches have a vital contribution to
make.
DAVID PRIMROSE
Hill House, Bednall
Stafford ST17 0SE
From Helen Innes
Sir, - I read with interest the article by the Revd Dr Rachel
Mann on the finality of death. May I offer three quotations in
response?
The first was from a film that I saw with my parents in, I
think, the 1940s, This Happy Breed. One of the characters,
exasperated by pious euphemisms, said of another: "He didn't pass
on, pass over, or pass away. He just died." Rather than the view of
death, it was the verbal economy that appealed to me as a young
child, but it stayed with me.
Then, in a York Course some years ago, the Revd Pauline Webb
said: "Death is not the opposite of life: it is the opposite of
birth." This idea was a great inspiration and comfort to me when my
husband died.
Finally, from our own Sage of Wormingford: "Everyone seems to
wriggle out of funerals and into memorial services these days,
aiming at celebration. A solemnity is what I aim at. Someone has
left the world." My sentiments entirely.
HELEN INNES
26 East Avenue, Mickleover
Derby DE3 9HN