With you at every step
Below you can find a selection of hymns and readings that you may find useful when thinking about a funeral. If you would like any guidance or advice do talk to your minister.
Hymns
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To listen to part of these hymns you could visit the church of England website (https://churchofenglandfunerals.org/stepbystep/) ‘CHOOSING A HYMN’
Hymns for adults
Hymns for children
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Popular readings
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The Ship by Bishop Charles Brent
I am standing on the seashore. A ship sails in the morning breeze and starts for the ocean. She is an object of beauty and I stand watching her till at last she fades on the horizon and someone at my side says, ‘She is gone’. Gone! Where? Gone from my sight – that is all. She is just as large in the masts, hull and spars as she was when I saw her, and just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination. The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, ‘She is gone’, there are others who are watching her coming, and other voices take up a glad shout: ‘There she comes’ – and that is dying. Remember Me by Christina Rosetti Remember me when I am gone away, gone far away into the silent land; when you can no more hold me by the hand, nor I half turn to go yet turning stay. Remember me when no more day by day you tell me of our future that you planned: only remember me; you understand it will be too late to counsel then or pray. Yet if you should forget me for a while and afterwards remember, do not grieve: for if the darkness and corruption leave a vestige of the thoughts that once I had, better by far that you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sad. Crossing the bar by Alfred Lord Tennyson Sunset and evening star; and one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, when I put out to sea. But such a tide as moving seems asleep, too full for sound and foam, when that which drew from out the boundless deep turns again home. Twilight and evening bell, and after that the dark! And may there be no sadness or farewell, when I embark. For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place the flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face when I have crost the bar. If I should go by Joyce Grenfell If I should die before the rest of you, break not a flower nor inscribe a stone, nor, when I’m gone, speak in a Sunday voice, but be the usual selves that I have known. Weep if you must: parting is hell. But life goes on. So sing as well. |
Bible readings
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