sample funeral service

Sample interfaith funeral service

Music for entrance: Simply the best. Tina Turner

A wicker coffin that has been threaded with flowers, ranunculas, nasturtiums and daisies, by her family and friends.

The minister

Welcome everybody to this celebration of the life --------- has lived on this earth.

As we gather in this sacred place we can begin to acknowledge that although ........ is no longer with us in her physical form, she will remain in our hearts and our memories forever. Her soul has now departed on the next part of its own unique journey, carrying our beloved one on to the beautiful eternity that she knew already so well in this lifetime.

We know that ............ life is both temporal and eternal, and whilst we already miss her so much and feel so sad at the loss of her physical form from our lives, we also know that she is here with even now.

And so our purpose here today is twofold.

We are here to release what has been, our wonderful human relationship with ............ our shared stories and history with her, and we are also here today to open our hearts even in their suffering that our relationship with her may be reborn in all eternity through the grace of our beloved God.

Prayer

Dear god blessed and divine holy spirit,
We acknowledge you as the knower of all things.
We acknowledge you as the director of the process of living and dying.
We acknowledge you as the beginning and the end.
We acknowledge that at this moment as are hearts are filled with the grief and loss of .......... we can still open ourselves to receive your divine love and wisdom to help us accept this pain.
We also open ourselves to your divine guidance on how to walk through this experience with grace and ease.
We ask for divine revelation of how to use this loss for our own personal growth and healing, in the absolute knowing that this is.......... wish for us.
And so we surrender our grief and pain and loss to you.
We ask you to fill us with peace
Fill us with comfort
Fill us with acceptance.
Fill us with strength
Fill us with courage.
Stand beside us in our every moment keeping us safe in your grace and your love
Amen

April (........... daughter) will now sing somewhere over the rainbow.

Rose (.............daughter) to read:

I will be forever near you.
I will be in the sunrise greeting your day with warmth.
I will be in the scent of the flowers opening you to all the beauty in your life.
I will be in the blue of the sky, wiping away your tears with a butterfly’s whisper of breath.
I will be in the laughter of the little children rejoicing in your every moment.
I will be in the trees, connecting you to your glorious wisdom through the years.
I will be in the luminous moon, holding you in my ever loving arms whilst you rest in slumber.
I will be in your heartbeat, ever present ever willing ever loving, ever waiting for you in all eternity.

The Eulogy

Candle lighting ritual

Jack will now come around and light a few candles and I ask you then to light each others candle.

When all the candles are lit the minister says:

So as we all stand here in peace and love with our light I ask you to look at the flame and remember that the light in ............ is eternal. For a moment remember her as she was in one of your happiest memories of her.

If you feel the need to forgive ......... for anything now would be a perfect time to offer her that forgiveness.

And if you feel you need to ask .......... for forgiveness for anything at all, again this is a perfect moment as we are all held in the grace of god.

And when you feel ready, blow out the candle and as you do know that you release her spirit into the everlasting love of her beloved god.

As the candles are blown out the ministers start the chant:

Into his presence would I enter now

To be joined by people as they have extinguished their own flame

The minister:

The closing prayer

Beloved god. As you carry our beloved ......... home to her everlasting life, we release her in all time and all space. With our every breath we let go of all past sorrows or grievances, we let go of our sorrow and pain, we acknowledge our great love for her.
As your angels rejoice at her arrival, so we sadly say goodbye to this chapter of her life.We know that you will hold our hearts in your loving embrace and give us all that we need to nourish our souls until the sun shines again in our own lives.

Let us all say together now ......... favourite prayer:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen

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