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Less than half of population want a funeral when they die

Theos report, ‘Love Grief and Hope’ is discussed in Female First. 27/11/2023

A new study by the religious think tank Theos has found that only 47 per cent of people are certain that they want a funeral service after they pass away.

2,500 people were asked if they wanted their life to be commemorated with a service and over half said that they did not or were not sure – with 24 per cent saying no entirely and 28 per cent stating they did not know.

Theos found that both financial pressures and declining religious belief have caused “growing numbers of Britons (to) disperse with funeral rites altogether” – much to the shock of the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

Read the full article here.

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Image by Female First

Madeleine Pennington

Madeleine is Head of Research at Theos. She holds a doctorate in theology from the University of Oxford, and previously worked as a research scholar at a retreat and education centre in Philadelphia. She is the author of ‘The Christian Quaker: George Keith and the Keithian Controversy’ (Brill: 2019), ‘Quakers, Christ and the Enlightenment’ (OUP, 2021), ‘The Church and Social Cohesion: Connecting Communities and Serving People’ (Theos, 2020), and ‘Cohesive Societies: Faith and Belief’ (British Academy, 2020). Outside of Theos, she sits on the Quaker Committee for Christian and Interfaith Relations.

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Posted 27 November 2023

Read the full article here