A pilot project to support parishes and increase the number of church-led funerals will be starting in Pershore and Evesham Deanery in the summer.
It is hoped that the project will help to reduce the amount of admin surrounding funerals for parishes as well as make it easier for funeral directors to find a CoE minister to lead a funeral. The project has already been running in the Diocese of Gloucester since 2019/20 and since that time, there has been around a 10% increase in church-led funerals for those taking part. This contrasts with a decline of approximately 11% nationally over the same time period.
Area Dean, Sarah Dangerfield explains why she wanted to be involved.
“In church-led funeral services, people hear a message of hope at a time of profound loss. They are offered a glimpse into God’s generous love which continues beyond death and brings the living and the departed into one community, and that, I think, is a message of great comfort and is about saying our life is more than our short span of years on earth. We know that the number of church-led funeral services is in sharp decline, and this means people are not hearing this message. Any help churches have available to them to increase church-led funerals is a good thing.”
During the pilot, the plan is to work with the team in Gloucester, who will have a Worcester phone number which will be the initial point of contact for funeral directors. They will be responsible for contacting the local ministry team to find someone to take the funeral and will also invoice the funeral director. The pastoral contact with the family will still be with the local minister if they wish, who will also liaise on the order of service as happens currently.
Sarah continued. “Research with funeral directors looking into the decline in church-led services highlighted the fact that ministers can often be hard to get hold of. Finding someone to take the service can take funeral directors a long time, particularly if the first person isn’t available. With the new system, the admin team will have a list of available ministers who are happy to make themselves available for funerals, which means the families will still hear the Christian message if the local minister doesn’t have capacity.”
The Gloucester-based team is recruiting an extra person to oversee our pilot, as well as one in the Diocese of Hereford. The two dioceses will contribute to the cost of this – there is no charge to the parishes involved and it is expected that the upturn in funeral fees will cover the cost of the administrator. The team strive to get back to the family within 24 hours.
“I really can’t see any disadvantages to this scheme,” said Sarah. It’s still possible for families and funeral directors to approach ministers directly if there is a personal connection – the minister will just send details to the funerals team for invoicing etc. We still keep the relationship with the families, but the reduction in administration should free up teams to focus on supporting bereaved families and other missional activities.”
Clergy in Pershore and Evesham can decide whether they want their parish to take part in the pilot. Those that do are being asked for a list of funeral directors they work closely with as well as details of how they’d like to be contacted and who should be contacted if they are unavailable. The Diocese of Gloucester is also providing some training to increase the number of funeral ministers. A meeting is being held with funeral directors to introduce the plan in June with the aim of going live in July. The pilot is planned to run for two years. If it is successful, the hope is that the service can be made available to other deaneries.
