I'm back to an old place at the moment. As we are in the middle of a vacancy at St Michael and All Saints, I am part of a team sorting out a funeral - which is proving more stressful than a wedding or a baptism. Why so?
Partly it's the sense that the pastoral damage created by a badly done funeral is greater and more long lasting than a muffed wedding or baptism. Literally, a bad funeral can put people off church for life. The stakes are higher if you like. also you are balancing a more diverse set of expectations/requirements. What makes this one tricky is that it's being organised by friends of the deceased but there is biological family input as well and the added sensitivity of there being the deceased's 5 year old son and his needs to be carefully considered. Add to that the fact that this being done in a vacancy, the co-coordinating between 3 non Stipendiary clergy, choir and music team, servers, and service sheet producers means there is always a greater chance of a mistake creeping in due to so many inputs needing to be reconciled. It's always easier if there is one person pulling the show together and not a committee. Luckily, communication between all the parties is good and it's proving to be a 1st class example of team work and collaborative ministry.
Ora pro nobis as we work towards a good result on Thursday!
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