You can download a simple reflection to be used on the day of a funeral you are unable to attend here: Funerals liturgy at home
A funeral is used to mark the end of a person’s life here on earth. Family and friends come together to express grief, give thanks for the life lived and commend the person into God’s keeping. These can be a small, quiet ceremony or a large occasion in a packed church. Ministers from St Giles’ Church are available to conduct funerals either in church or at a Crematorium or cemetery.
If you have been bereaved recently and would like someone from St Giles’ to conduct the funeral, please contact a funeral director to make these arrangements. We endeavour to meet all requests to conduct funerals where the deceased resided in the parish, or where a close relative of the deceased lives in the parish.
Following a funeral taken by one of the ministers from St Giles’ Church, bereaved families are offered a visit by a fully trained member of the Bereavement Support Group (BSG). This one-to-one support is usually given in the home of the bereaved person.
At 2pm on the third Monday of each month, a drop-in is held in the St Giles’ Church Hall when anyone who is bereaved can come to talk informally with some visitors over a cup of tea. This is open to anyone in the community who is affected by a loss that has occurred recently or a long time ago. The dates of the drop-in sessions are advertised each month in the Ickenham Church News. (Dates in late 2023 are: 18 September, 16 October, 20 November and 18 December.)
Useful links:
Cruse Bereavement Care factsheets http://www.cruse.org.uk/publications/booklets
Bereavement Care http://www.bereavementcareandsupport.co.uk/
As Christians, we have found our faith in God’s love and purposes for us provides comfort and strength at difficult times in our lives including bereavement.
Helpful Prayers:
Almighty God, you make nothing in vain and love all you have made. Comfort us in our sorrow and console us in the knowledge of your unfailing love, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Thank you, God, that you are with me in my grief. You will not leave me here, but help me to work through it. Please give me strength for today. Amen
Helpful Bible Passages:
‘Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.’ (Matthew 5.4)
John 14.1-6