A brief note this All Souls’ Day:
The most painfully appropriate song I’ve ever had a family choose at a funeral was Macy Gray’s “Try”,
I try to say goodbye and I choke
I try to walk away and I stumble
Though I try to hide it it’s clear
My world crumbles when you are not near
Goodbye and I choke
What made this so difficult (as the deceased’s favourite song) was that he had hanged himself.
The most inappropriate song – and I think one I would have seriously thought of refusing – was one I heard at the crematorium while waiting for the next service. This time it was the brilliant Bohemian Rhapsody. I am not convinced, however, that if someone has chosen a Christian funeral service that it should end by listening to
Oh mama mia, mama mia) Mama Mia, let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me! …Nothing really matters. Nothing really matters to me
Forging a pastoral relationship in the tension between a faithful interpretation of a Christian liturgy and a culture that has almost entirely forgotten how to speak in Christian, and where Christian art, poetry and music is a faded memory – forging such a relationship is to set sail without charts in a sea full of sandbanks.
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I was once asked for a Rod Stewart song, and I made the mistake of saying Yes before I knew what it was to be…’Do you think I’m sexy.’ It was rather bizarre announcing the title dressed in robes, etc, while standing at the front of the crem.
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