Civil Funerals : Guidance from Perry & Phillips Bridgnorth
Civil Funerals have been available in most of the UK for many years now, delivered by a professional Civil Funeral Celebrant, who will be a member of the Institute of Civil Funerals. Full list of members available at www.iocf.org.uk/reg_members
A Civil Funeral is defined as: A funeral, which is driven by the wishes, beliefs and values of the deceased and their family, not by the beliefs or ideology of the person conducting the funeral.’
This means that the professional Celebrant is happy to include religious material as well as carrying out non-religious ceremonies. In this way Civil Funerals are somewhat different to humanist ceremonies, where religion will not be included. The Celebrant will spend time talking with family members and friends and will then write and deliver a full ceremony that will reflect the wishes of the family and those of the deceased. The Celebrant also discusses and arranges participation in the ceremony of any family or friends, music and readings.
What makes a Civil Funeral different?
The quality procedures in place to measure training of Celebrants and client satisfaction are second to none. Every ceremony script is checked and controlled by follow-up client questionnaires to maintain the highest possible quality. The Celebrant will ask a family member to check the text before the day so no minor details can be wrong and afterwards a full ceremony text is provided to the family.
Who are Civil Funeral Celebrants?
The person conducting the Ceremony will be a trained professional Celebrant. Often semi-retired professional people, Celebrants have empathy and gentleness, good delivery and writing skills and a real interest in improving funerals in the UK. Funeral Celebrants will have passed an externally accredited training course and will be a member of the Institute of Civil Funerals, providing them with a name badge they will wear whenever they visit homes or conduct a ceremony.