THREE people in the diocese of Hereford have been licensed as lay funeral ministers (LLFMs) by the Bishop, the Rt Revd Richard Jackson. The diocese is in a partnership with Gloucester diocese to train candidates for this ministry, intended to support the clergy, make it easier to arrange a funeral, and support people at a difficult time in their lives.
All three have backgrounds deemed by the diocese appropriate to the ministry. Sue Jackson, head server at the cathedral, has had a nursing career in oncology and palliative care, including 15 years as a community Macmillan nurse and as a therapist counselling people with long-term health conditions. “It’s a perfect fit,” she said.
Keith Lawton, 33 years a churchwarden at St Nicholas’s, Sutton St Nicholas, said that he has been alongside families, funeral directors, and clergy through many funerals, including leading two for his own close friends. “I know what it is like when we lose someone whom we love dearly,” he said. “When I reflected and prayed on what happened to me on these occasions, I realised I was being called to the lay funeral ministry.”
Gill Layton was a funeral director for 15 years. “I see this new role as being a different way of serving my neighbours,” she said. “I’ve been honoured to have learned from both the bereaved families and friends of deceased people and from many colleagues.”
The formal training explores liturgy, contemporary funerals, and bereavement support. It includes role play, time spent with independent funeral directors and staff at the crematorium, and observing various types of service, including burials and cremations, child funerals, and interment of ashes.
The training is intended to equip LLFMs to visit the family and support them in planning a Christian funeral service for their loved one, and to provide bereavement support afterwards, if needed. They are licensed to conduct funerals in churches, crematoria, and at the graveside, as well as interments of ashes and memorial services.
Busy family lives, often little or no personal relationship with the parish church, and an abiding concern to deal respectfully and swiftly with loved ones has led many families to opt for direct crematorium funeral packages without church involvement.
“Finding somewhere to put all your grief isn’t easy,” the diocese says. In Hereford City deanery, the new lay ministry is part of a new service, Hereford Funerals, which can have funeral details confirmed within 24 hours of an enquiry.