THREE people within the diocese of Hereford have been licensed as lay funeral ministers (LLFMs) by the Bishop, the Rt Revd Richard Jackson. The diocese is in a partnership with Gloucester diocese to coach candidates for this ministry, intended to support the clergy, make it easier to rearrange a funeral, and support people at a difficult time of their lives.
All three have backgrounds deemed by the diocese appropriate to the ministry. Sue Jackson, head server on the cathedral, has had a nursing profession in oncology and palliative care, including 15 years as a community Macmillan nurse and as a therapist counselling individuals with long-term health conditions. “It’s an ideal fit,” she said.
Keith Lawton, 33 years a churchwarden at St Nicholas’s, Sutton St Nicholas, said that he has been alongside families, funeral directors, and clergy through many funerals, including leading two for his own close friends. “I do know what it’s like after we lose someone whom we love dearly,” he said. “When I reflected and prayed on what happened to me on these occasions, I realised I used to be being called to the lay funeral ministry.”
Gill Layton was a funeral director for 15 years. “I see this latest role as being a special way of serving my neighbours,” she said. “I’ve been honoured to have learned from each the bereaved families and friends of deceased people and from many colleagues.”
The formal training explores liturgy, contemporary funerals, and bereavement support. It includes role play, time spent with independent funeral directors and staff on the crematorium, and observing various kinds of service, including burials and cremations, child funerals, and interment of ashes.
The training is meant to equip LLFMs to go to the family and support them in planning a Christian funeral service for his or her loved one, and to offer bereavement support afterwards, if needed. They are licensed to conduct funerals in churches, crematoria, and on the graveside, in addition to interments of ashes and memorial services.
Busy family lives, often little or no personal relationship with the parish church, and an abiding concern to deal respectfully and swiftly with family members has led many families to go for direct crematorium funeral packages without church involvement.
“Finding somewhere to place all of your grief isn’t easy,” the diocese says. In Hereford City deanery, the brand new lay ministry is an element of a latest service, Hereford Funerals, which might have funeral details confirmed inside 24 hours of an enquiry.
 by the Bishop, the Rt Revd Richard Jackson. The diocese...){kind=link}