THE Law Commission for England and Wales is currently consulting on whether to legalise new funerary methods (News, 5 July). All Things Considered (BBC Wales, Sunday) caught up with Kristoffer Hughes, a Druid from North Wales, who is campaigning to legalise “terramation”, or human composting.

He described in detail the process by which a human body can be turned into a cubic yard of soil in about two months. So fervent on the subject was Mr Hughes that he even sat enclosed in a composter, surrounded by lucerne, wood chips, and straw, while a mock-up of his own funeral was performed outside. He said that he was surrounded by the smell of summer rather than death.

I also learned that the first modern cremation carried out in the UK was by a Welsh Druid, Dr William Price.

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Wrexham, the Rt Revd Peter Brignall, expressed clear opposition on the basis of human dignity and a long Christian tradition of the burial of the dead in the pattern of Christ’s burial — although the Roman Catholic Church lifted its longstanding opposition to cremation in the 1960s, just decades after the Church of England.

Challenged by the presenter, Jonathan Thomas, on whether composting would prevent a Christian from being raised again, the Bishop acknowledged that it wouldn’t, but then argued that composting, “definitive in its annihilation of the human person”, offended the dignity of human remains.

A Baptist theologian, Simon Woodman, quoted 1 Corinthians 15 and Genesis 2.7 as his grounds for being supportive of human composting, noting that he had said “earth to earth” at hundreds of funerals over the years, and would therefore consider the option himself. The Revd Matt Davis, a ministry-area leader in the Valleys, also supported the possibility of terramation, a “more ecological” option that resonated with his values. He understood that dignified treatment of composted remains was a key question, something for which he wanted guidance from the wider Church.

Since Scotland legalised alkaline hydrolysis a few months ago, the question how to deal with new funerary methods is coming at churches very quickly. Guidance would indeed be helpful.

All earthly things are mortal: on Saturday, the BBC ceased long-wave broadcasting after 101 years. On The Media Show (Radio 4, Wednesday), a broadcasting engineer, Jeffrey Borinsky, explained the unique properties of these low frequencies, which can cover thousands of miles, reaching into deep valleys, with a single transmitter, albeit a powerful one with a huge aerial.

Even today, a few people in remote areas have consequently lost their radio service, but the cost of replacing ageing equipment at the Droitwich transmission site is prohibitive. And in an apocalyptic scenario? Long wave might get through where other means failed — but few people still have the means to receive it.