Canadian singer Celine Dion performs on stage at the Stade de Geneve in Geneva on July 9, 2008. Her song Wind Beneath my Wings is one of the popular secular tunes played at funerals. Photo/REUTERS
By OLIVER MATHENGE and AgenciesPosted Wednesday, October 21 2009 at 19:48
What music would you like to have played at your funeral? Hip hop, Pop, Rock or the good old hymn? A British priest has expressed concern over the number of funeral he has led with little or no Christian content. Church of England priest Father Edward Tomlinson has stirred controversy following a post on his blog where he questioned the role of a priest at non-religious services at the crematorium.
Fr Tomlinson, 35, said hymns and prayers were often replaced by a “poem from Nan” or a “saccharine message from a pop star”. Entitled “The death of death”Tomlinson’s blog attacked civil funerals saying he is troubled that pastoral care is being left in the hands of those whose main aim is to make money.
Church service
According to the priest, such services left him feeling like “a lemon” and questions why people chose a church service when they do not want Christian input or songs.
“I have stood at the Crem like a lemon, wondering why on earth I am present at the funeral of somebody led by the blaring tunes of Tina Turner summed up in pithy platitudes of sentimental and secular poets and sent into the furnace with “I did it my way” blaring out across the speakers,” he wrote on the website for St Barnabus Church in the southern English county of Kent.
Locally, Federation of Evangelical and Indigenous Christian Churches of Kenya chairman Bishop Joseph Methu concurred with the British priest saying that people should be careful with what kind of music they play at funerals. He noted that music was very influential especially to the minds of the listeners. “If the funeral is spiritual led then the music has to be Christian. Other faiths too should do it their way. But you cannot have a mix of the two,” Bishop Methu said.
Similar sentiments were shared by African Inland Church Bishop Silas Yego who however said that at times men of cloth may attend funerals that they are not necessary presiding over. He noted that in such instances, it is difficult for anyone to dictate what music is to be played having gone there as a “comforter”.
“At AIC we use religious music since we print them out at funeral services,” said Bishop Yego. Anglican Archbishop Eliud Wabukala declined to comment in detail on the matter saying he needed to familiarise with father Tomlinson’s arguments. He however said that “funerals are contextual” and one must make the music relevant to the context.
In an earlier article entitled The Death of Death he said: “In the last few years it has become painfully obvious that many families I have conducted funerals for have absolutely no desire for any Christian content whatsoever. To be brutally honest, I can think of a hundred better ways of spending my time as a priest on God’s earth. What is the point of my being present if spiritually unwanted?”
The priest clarifies that he was not attacking mourners but was seeking answers to what the society understood funerals to be for. He argues that funerals offer an opportunity to say good bye and to offer loved ones into the hands of a living God, praying that sins may be forgiven and that they may be granted eternal life.
“It is of course quite possible, and often even fitting, to include a whole range of music (even Tina Turner) within a funeral service. And I am only ever delighted if such music is a comfort to those who mourn,” the priest says. The British Humanist Association said their funerals are a good way for people to pay personal tribute “with words and music particularly fitting to them.”
“What a shame this particular priest seems more concerned with his own feelings than allowing bereaved people a ceremony that reflects their beliefs and wishes and those of the loved ones they have lost,” said Tana Wollen, BHA’s Head of Ceremonies.
A survey carried out earlier this year found that only 35 percent of Britons chose religious music at funerals, a fall of six percent on four years earlier. The song played the most at funerals is “My Way” by Frank Sinatra or Shirley Bassey. Other popular tunes include Celine Dion’s “Wind Beneath My Wings” and “Angels” by Robbie Williams, according to a poll carried out by Co-operative Funeralcare
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