Once you are ordained through the Universal Life Church, it is time to start learning your craft. As an ordained minister, one thing you might be called on to do is to perform a funeral service.
I start my services with an opening and a welcome and thank you to the guests for coming. Next, I start to talk about the reason we’re gathering for the celebration of the life of a person they have loved. I invite everyone to give a spiritual hello to the newly departed, while I lead the guests in prayer. I talk some about life and death as well as what wed learned from the deceased in his or her time with us. Following that, I move into the eulogy. After, I use far more personalized facts I get when I talk to the bereaved before the memorial service.
I usually include some biographical content during the beginning of the eulogy, which reminds everyone that the departed one was both a member of a family or group and was an individual. I move on to share regarding the importance of reminiscing fondly about the deceased. It is common for nobody to speak at the service, but sometimes people will stand up as long as it is left open to them.
At this part of the ceremony, there is a lot of opportunity for variation. I get pleasure from singing or leading people in ‘Amazing Grace’ during memorials. Not everyone is comfortable doing that, but there still might be space to have a musical introduction. Just be sure that the funeral director knows if a tape or CD is to be played. They usually already do. After the song, there can be a candle-lighting, reading from the bible or reciting of some poetry. The closing is a prayer and a benediction.
If the body is likely to be interred (buried), then I often go to the burial site (unless I am already there), and read some bible passages, the Lord’s Prayer, plus the section for the interment – (offering the physical remains from whence it came, and so on.) I don’t necessarily do it in that order; I try to just allow it flow as feels right. It’s wise to be prepared for anything.
I’ve discovered that memorial services are a unique place to teach, discover things about myself and others better, and to heal. The single most important matters to keep in mind when you’re conducting a ceremony is that it is imperative that you, as the officiant, keep control of your own feelings. There will likely be a lot of people around you sitting in sadness as well as grief. It’s not your place to match their emotions. It is your job to keep yourself a bit distant and be compassionate, yet still be strong, to give permission for the bereaved to lean on you and For the duration of your time there, you, the clergy-person, are central in bringing comfort as well as hope to the grieving, so it is very important that you give them the complete freedom to open up and express their feelings.
ULC reverends are less likely to conduct funeral services held in churches because the local pastor would be involved and would most likely be the one to conduct the ceremony.
BEAR IN MIND that there is no one special way to conduct a funeral. Not all services are religious in nature and the officiant needs to be prepared to supply a non-religious ceremony without references to The Divine Force. The family can tell you what their beliefs are beforehand as well as those of the deceased so those beliefs should be honored.
The funeral is to help the grieving much more than the deceased. The clergy-person is the professional, entrusted to carry forth the ceremony to assist the departed into the arms of a kind and loving God.
Its good to show up prepared and each clergy-person ought to possess a copy of Weddings, Funerals and Rites of Passage, along with its sequel, More Weddings, Funerals and Rites of Passage, available through the resource link.
