I thought I would write to let you know where we are up to with arrangements for Dad's Funeral.Fixing a date proved a little difficult with the christmas new year holiday's and Father Doetsch is away from the day after boxing day till 11 January.
However we have confirmed with Father Doetsch that the funeral will be on Friday 11th January at 11.30am at St Aidans (with the cremation at 1pm at the Croydon Crematorium). He has arranged for Canon Franke to deliver the service. I am trying to contact John Bliss to see if he would be available to deliver the sermon.
Within the service I know some of us will want to say a few words about Dad. Brenda has agreed to co-ordinate thoughts of us here in the UK. Can I leave it with you all in the States to talk together about your thoughts and co-ordinate how you would like to present your thoughts?
In terms of the Mass Father Doetsch has asked a few decisions:
He asked what readings and gospel we would want for the service and which hymns. In the mass there will be two readings and 1 gospel. He gave us a photocopy of 26 readings, and 19 gospel readings to choose from. Unfortunately they are not in electronic form so I cannot attach them.
I would recommend the following
Readings
A reading from the 2nd letter of St Paul to the Corinthians (5:1,6-10) - which starts "we know that when the tent we live in on earth is folded there is a house built by God for us, an everlasting home not made by human hands, in the heavens"
A reading from the book of the Apocalypse (14:13) - "I John, heard a voice from heaven say to me, 'Write down: Happy are those who die in the Lord! Happy indeed, the Spirit says; now they can for ever rest after their work, since good deeds go with them.'
Gospel
John 12:23-28
It starts:
"Jesus said to his disciples:
'Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
I tell you most solemnly,
unless a wheat of grain falls on the ground and dies,
it remains a single grain;
but if it dies,
it yields a rich harvest....................
I like the reference to a rich harvest and think that is very fitting for Dad. I am certainly not precious and would be happy if you have other choices. If you do please let me know
2. Hymns
He asked me to suggest hymns but I'm afraid my mind is a blank!! Beth has kindly volunteered to speak to john Stradling who is the person who organised the music at Mom's funeral. If anyone has any preference please let Beth know. My only thought is that whatever we pick we should be able to sing along to
Practicalities
We thought it would be good to organise accommodation so we can all be together, certainly the night before and night of the funeral.
I will see what accommodation is available - perhaps down more towards the pub - so we can be together. It would be handy to hear your travel plans as soon as you know them
Hi Kevin,
thanks for that info about Toms funeral. Uncle Mike also posted his reading to us by e-mail. It was very thoughtful. Hope that the occasion was more happy than sad with the family gathering together.
My best to you,
You've probably heard from returning californians by now, but I will just say that it was indeed a positive occasion and it was really good to get together over those 10 days or so when everyone was over. The funeral itself went well, Mike doing us and dad proud with his eulogy. A good number of old friends of mom and dad's were there and alot of nice things were said about Tom.
Of course there were also trips to football games, pubs crawls and darts matches, parties and group singing, you know, the normal rileyboy stuff!
Hope you 2 are doing well, you were missed in the gathering.
