There is no such things as a 'standard' funeral service. It can be very short and quiet with only a few present or an occasion of great solemnity with music, hymns and a packed church. The service can come from the Prayer Book or Common Worship with hymns, favourite prayers and readings, an address. No matter what the pattern of service, the words and actions all speak of a loving God and the preciousness to Him of every human being. We feel strongly that the service should be what you need and want it to be and take every effort to ensure that it will meet the needs of all present as much as is possible.

The funeral service reflects the personality of the one who has died and the circumstances of their death. Feelings of grief, gratitude, joy and sadness often intermingle. Sometimes, a sense of tragedy is uppermost, especially when it is a young person who has died. When it is the end of a long and fruitful life, the feelings of thanksgiving can be strongest.

Arranging a funeral
The person who has died may have left a paragraph in their Will describing the sort of funeral arrangements they hoped for. Naturally, the family will want to keep to such arrangements as far as possible. Not everyone knows they have the right to a funeral in their parish church, even if they and the dead person have not been church-goers. Nor do practising Christians always realise that they can have a Communion service as part of the funeral.

We regard the taking of funerals as an important part of our ministry in Tamworth. We give a lot of time to visiting families, comforting those who are facing loss, finding out what service they want to use and helping them to arrange it. The funeral director plays a very important part in all these arrangements and will want to know if the funeral is to be in the parish church or the crematorium. Funeral directors in the area know us, the local cemeteries and the crematoria and contact us if the family hasn't yet done so. continued