By Lianne Kolirin
Religion has taken a back seat at British funerals, according to a new report into public attitudes towards death, dying and the afterlife.
The report, Ashes to Ashes, which was commissioned by the think tank Theos, revealed that more people were talking about death since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic but that faith was less central to funeral rituals.
The report’s findings were expanded upon by Dr Marianne Rozario, its co-author, in an online panel discussion hosted by the Religion Media Centre.
Dr Rozario told the virtual gathering that the study sought to explore trends and attitudes towards death, dying and the afterlife — and to examine what role churches and faith communities play in those.
“What do they offer to those who are dying and even to those who are bereaved,” she said. “The key message we wanted to convey is that death has such nuanced emotional complexities to it and while changes are occurring in common practices and trends are changing, there’s a real scope for churches and faith communities to reclaim a role that offers pastoral care and theological accompaniment.”
The study, which consulted 64 individuals through focus groups and one-to-one interviews, revealed a decline in the role of religious professionals in funeral arrangements, Dr Rozario said.
“All those traditional ways in which we’ve marked death throughout the centuries are out and new kinds of secular ways are in — so celebrations of life, death cafés, death doulas, those kinds of ideas are increasing.”
Death doulas, or soul midwives, are non medical staff who support those who are dying. They have a similar role to a chaplain, but without the language of organised religion.
Jennifer Uzzell, a doctoral researcher at Durham University who runs a progressive funeral home with her partner in Darlington, agreed with the report’s findings, saying “religious funerals are very much in the minority”.
Mourners often request a humanist ceremony, she said, although that description does not reflect what they are actually looking for. “A lot of people come to us and their initial comment is that they want a humanist funeral,” she said.
“When we have a conversation with them, most of them don’t fully understand what humanist means. It isn’t that they want a complete exclusion of religion or spirituality. It’s that their spirituality is amorphous — it’s not fixed or tied to a particular belief system.”
Often people want to include the Lord’s Prayer, she said, or a blessing or committal with some reference to the afterlife. “Most people that we speak to will say they have some belief that something happens after death, but they’re not sure what it is.
“But they don’t want a Christian service and usually that’s because they want the service to be focused on the life of the person, rather than on a sort of fixed liturgical pattern.”
She added: “The Lord’s Prayer in particular, is something that people very often want, because they want that sense of tradition, they want that sense of connection with history. They want somewhere something in there that they feel is safe and is proper to have in a funeral. Not necessarily do they want it because of its connection to Christianity, or specifically to a belief system that they have.”
Margaret Doherty, director of the Centre for The Art of Dying Well at St Mary’s University, London, agreed, saying that data shows “people look at those prayers for a long time on their mobile, which may indicate that they are reading those prayers in the moment alongside their loved one”.
The Rev Professor Douglas Davies, leader of the Centre for Death and Life Studies at Durham University, argued that the move away from religious ceremonies was linked to an overall “withdrawal from institutions”.
“That’s part of the changing nature of religion,” he said. Similar changes can be seen in the study of world views over religion, he explained. In particular, he highlighted what he defined as the “ecological natural worldview” — which connects a person’s identity with their natural surroundings.
This world view extends to many aspects of life, including burials, he said, giving the example of woodland interments and other “green” funeral rites, including something that he expects to gain popularity in the coming years — the dissolution of bodies. It was up to the church, he said, to bring itself up to speed to be able to cater for those who want more environmentally ethical funerals.
Deborah Hooper, director of ceremonies at Humanists UK, said the organisation offered non-religious people “totally custom-made services”. She said: “Every single ceremony is unique and original, there is no cutting and pasting of a name. It’s a tribute to an individual life. Our celebrants often spend as much as 10 hours on a ceremony and each is unique and a totally personal tribute to that one person.”
Rabbi Jonathan Romain of Maidenhead Synagogue said he had witnessed an “inordinate” amount of change when it came to funerals, with frequent requests for humanist ceremonies.
“What they actually mean is a funeral that’s more personalised in terms of the rituals, greater choice of music, of readings,” he said. “And these are not bad developments, I would say what we’re seeing is a democratisation of faith.”
Dr Rozario said their research observed “trends towards secular celebrations of life”. “For example,” she said, “I spoke to a celebrant who spoke about doing celebrations of life in village halls, in woodland settings, in a bar. And as well, we’re seeing different trends in terms of the storing of ashes, for example, in jewellery, and I think it’s really important for churches and faith communities to be aware of these trends and have a theological response to them.”
The research was launched to investigate the impact of the pandemic on the conversation surrounding death. “We’ve definitely seen an increase in television programmes in popular podcasts, bestselling novels, all on the topic of death,” Dr Rozario said. However, that development was limited.
“When we asked people what makes a good death, one of those answers was, ‘We’d like to be prepared.’ But despite the pandemic, despite the increased conversation in public society about death, they aren’t being prepared. I hope that’s something to take away from this report as well — that increased conversation for churches and faith communities to really rebuild that.”
