Product Description

Arising out of many year's experience of helping to lead local church worship and counselling work in a children's hospice, this is the first of three new volumes that focuses on the occasions when many non-churchgoers visit a church: for christenings, weddings, funerals, and memorials. These rites of passage present key opportunities for occasional visitors to encounter the Christian faith. If they are imaginatively handled a lifelong interest can be aroused. If they are insensitively done, people can be put of for life. This practical resource offers prayers, forms of words and many tried and tested ideas for creating rituals that give support at a time of great need following a death. It will enable the creation of rites (based on the authorized liturgical texts) that are beautiful, memorable and meaningful. Particular help is given for that most difficult of pastoral challenges, the death of a child and the care of the bereaved family.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48690 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

About the Author
Jan Brind and Tessa Wilkinson are the authors of 'Crafts for Creative Worship' and 'Creative Ideas for Evening Prayer'. Jan is a musician and hymn writer and serves on the Guidlford Diocesan Liturgical Committee. Tessa is a counsellor and an artist. She lives in Oxford.

Customer Reviews

Wet, wet, wet
I picked up this book for £3.00 but have now come to the conclusion that it was not worth it.

As someone who has been conducting funerals and memorial services for 24 years I have to say that I cannot conceive of any situation where this book would have been useful. The resources it offers are replete with nature imagery and statements about others walking with us. I really cannot see that any of this is any use at all. It is the liturgical equivalent of the old Laura Ashley dresses: acceptable (perhaps) in the 1970s but definitely not in 2009.

The authors have included a lot of their own "poems" and short pieces of prose but they all look to me as the product of two ladies who should have been told a long time ago that creative writing is not their gift. Give me R S Thomas, John Donne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, George Herbert or even Philip Larkin anyday.

There is a "How to Make" section which gives instructions for making, among others, all manner of butterfly-themed items including, and I've checked again to see that I'm not imagining it, a "butterfly stole". I ask you!

I've spent a fair bit of my working life in recent years teaching a bereavement and loss course and as a result have gathered any number of books on the subject. This is quite the worst.

A most helpful book
This book and accompanying CD is excellent. One of the problems with funeral liturgies is that they can often be dull and inflexible. Many don't connect with people's real sense of grief. Many are not child friendly at all. This book encourages friendly and creative ways of planning and leading some of the most important services ministers will undertake. There are ideas for all, irrespective of denomination. I have found it personally helpful on a number of occasions and would highly recommend it for those who grapple with the difficulties of bereavement and liturgy.

An excellent resource
This is an excellent book which addresses a wide range of pastoral services for which there is little provided elsewhere, included for the funeral of a child. The authors provide resources which combine contemporary and accessible language with a deep pastoral sensitivity. This is an excellent book - as are the others in this same series, which all provide a rich source of creative ideas for pastoral liturgies.