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John Humphrys – It’s your funeral… Or is it?

John Humphrys – It’s your funeral… Or is it?

Jon Humphrys comments on findings from Theos report ‘Love, Grief and Hope’ for YouGov. 01/12/2023

This may be the first time in all the years I’ve been writing this column that I have begun by stating my own view on my chosen subject. Then again, it’s also the first column in which I have addressed the question of my own death. Or, to be more precise, my own funeral. And that’s because a survey by the religious think tank Theos has just found that most of us don’t want one. Do You?

Maybe I should be a little more precise. What do we mean by a “funeral”. At the risk of stating the obvious, we’re all going to die and something must be done to deal with our remains. I want mine to be buried in a cardboard coffin in the small woodland I own in west Wales. I rather hope my children and grandchildren will be there and that my son will play a little Bach on his cello and my daughter will read a poem. There will be no religious element whatsoever.

Read the full article here.

 


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Image by YouGov

Madeleine Pennington

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), and various Theos reports.

Watch, listen to or read more from Madeleine Pennington

Posted 1 December 2023

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