Church of England funerals plummet 30% in a decade
Are people living longer? Are fewer dying? In the decade 2005-2015, the general population increased from 60,210,000 to 64,716,000, so why has the number of Church of England funerals plummeted…
Funeral rites
David Lammy and the anti-Empire racism of religious illiteracy
When it transpired recently that thousands of black and Asian soldiers who died fighting for the British Empire had been 'unequally' commemorated in death, the absence of headstones and other memorials to their service was swiftly attributed to "pervasive racism"…
Cecil the Lion – a lesson in animal theology
A dentist called Walter Palmer has killed a lion called Cecil. Cecil the lion is now dead, and never has the world been so united in grief. Well, perhaps…
Horrible Histories meets Monty Python – the reinterment of King Richard III
According to Leicester Cathedral, the cost of designing a space to accommodate the tomb of King Richard III has been £1.54million. The cost of the reinterment events, interpretation and…
"What ceremony else?" Church of England to reform burial of suicides
"What ceremony else?" cries Laertes in Hamlet, as his dead sister Ophelia is buried to a single tolling bell with a meagre liturgy, as all suspected suicides used to…