Whether the death is expected, as a result of a long-term illness or old age, or unexpected, due to a fatal accident or a heart attack, stillbirth or a crime, the immediate aftermath can be extremely traumatic for family and friends.
If the person who has died held strong religious views and regularly attended a place of worship, they may have previously expressed a wish to have a religious funeral.
If they had no specific faith and did not firmly believe in a God or any kind of ‘afterlife’, they may have expressed a preference to have a humanist celebration, where the mention of any such beliefs are completely forbidden.
However, many more individuals do not fall strictly into either of these two groups. You may feel, or they may have expressed, that they would prefer a ceremony that may include a hymn or reading, but is not overtly 'faith-based' and is focussed on the life they led rather than a particular belief system or religious creed.
This is where Civil Celebrants, like me, can help create a fitting funeral ceremony that is highly personalised and heavily focussed on the uniqueness of this one specific life – however long or short.
Together, we can create a truly memorable ceremony for the family and close friends of the person who has died, giving them a truly fitting farewell.
Unlike a strictly religious or non-religious funeral, a Civil Celebrant will prepare a funeral celebration solely according to the next of kin’s wishes.
A trained Civil Celebrant can offer up his or her extensive experience and expertise to support and offer up creative ideas to make your loved one’s event highly memorable.
This creativity is backed up with the professional knowledge of what can and cannot be done, and how to proceed.