Dec 19, 2017 | Facilitation, Having a vigil and laying out the body, Home funeral, Ritual
My close-up on 2017 is coloured by Kinship Ritual. So I’m taking up a viewpoint that I frequently see in the media and beginning with the words: ‘We live in an era of …’ We live in an era of awakening to the reality that Death is part of Life. Those I’ve worked...
Sep 8, 2017 | Funeral options, Having a vigil and laying out the body, Home funeral
This weekend I’ll be presenting at the first Melbourne Festival of Death and Dying. My topic is Rituals of Laying Out and Vigil. I wonder how you respond to this idea, and if you would come? You might think of laying out as being something that Catholics do, or...
Jun 15, 2017 | Funeral options, Home funeral
No-one wants a cookie cutter funeral In fact some people want a unique funeral at home. Everything is changing so quickly around us. You can buy a funeral on Gumtree. In Lygon Street a trusted funeral company shares a building with a glass fronted upstairs gym. In...
Sep 28, 2016 | Funeral options, Green funeral, Home funeral, Uncategorized
The US social landscape is unique in the way it makes room for the vocation and concern of citizenship. I’ve learned this through being a practitioner in deliberative democracy over many years. Today Trump and Clinton strut the last days of their campaign in the...
Feb 13, 2015 | Green funeral, Having a vigil and laying out the body, Home funeral, Remembering
In this post I use the word vigil, but not in a religious sense. I’ve made vigil the topic for the Sustainable Funeral event at this year’s Sustainable Living Festival (SLF) event. I think of a vigil as a continuous, intimate thread of care. Some want to...
Apr 9, 2014 | Green funeral, Home funeral
Thirty years’ ago Australians’ life expectancy grew substantially. This post looks at the implications for funeral options. Thirty years’ ago public health initiatives had cut down infant mortality. TAC style campaigns reduced teenage drunk driving...
