You Wait For Ages

It took a while to start taking funeral services after I was ordained: in Lamford in summer 2005 we went for weeks without any at all. Once I got going, though, I probably took 20 or so over the course of the year and Il Rettore did the same. That wasn't particularly impressive compared to the way it would have been once upon a time, nor to other places elsewhere: any time I spoke to my old vicar in his new Yorkshire parish he ended the conversation with 'I've got to go and get ready for a funeral, that's five this week', making one wonder how many people were actually left in the town.

How different all that is now. A few short years later and most clergy find they're doing a paltry number of funerals. I've taken only a couple this year, and even though it's true that I try to channel those that do come up towards our curate so she can have the practice, nevertheless even with hers added to the total I don't think we're into double figures since July last year. The local undertakers are quite apologetic about it, but the fact is that most people choose secular celebrants to take their services, even if those celebrants apparently quite often find themselves asked to incorporate the Lord's Prayer and the 23rd Psalm into the services they assemble. The generation that automatically assumed the local vicar is the right person to see you out of this world has passed and the consumer mentality has affected this aspect of human life as much as others.

And all of a sudden I have three funerals to do in the course of ten days, one of which is a burial - I haven't buried anyone for three or four years. I sat with a family going through the details of their mum's service the other day and had to struggle to remember what I usually say in such circumstances, which once upon a time tripped off my tongue with smooth facility. None of the deceased people are members of the Swanvale Halt congregation and only one attended church anywhere at all.