Funerals

Funerals in the Ouse Valley Benefice

If you would like a funeral or a service for the internment of ashes in one of our churches, please do get in touch. Normally, it will be the funeral director who liaises with us on your behalf. Once we have confirmed the details with the funeral director, we will arrange to come and see members of the family to discuss the arrangements for the service. We know this can be a hard time for those involved, but we seek to come alongside you and walk you through this journey. 

We understand that you may want certain elements included in the service and will try to accommodate these in the context of a Christian service. As a minimum, all of our funerals must include a Bible reading together with a short address based on that passage as well as one or two christian hymns or songs. This does not mean you can not have other songs that might be special to the family, or a special poem or reading being read. We would also encourage the reading of a eulogy or tribute that the family has written. This can be read by a friend or relative, or we could read it on your behalf.

We are also able to conduct services at the Crematorium if this is your wish. Again, your funeral director will contact us on your behalf.

Standard Order of Service

You can see our current standard order of service for funerals on this website. This will help you plan for the service alongside the vicar and the funeral directors.

Bible Readings

You can choose any Bible passage to be read during the funeral service. The minister will be happy to talk through the options with you and they will give a short address based on that passage during the funeral. We have listed some of the common passages that are chosen for funerals on our Funeral Bible Reading page.

Hymns

Common hymns that might be chosen for a funeral can be found on the BBC Songs of Praise website. They provide some background on each hymn and why they are a good choice for a funeral service. You are not limited to those hymns and we are very flexible in terms of the music that you would like to choose for a funeral. 

Churchyards and Memorials

If a burial is taking place in one of our churchyards, we have certain regulations in terms of memorials that we have to adhere to. Please see our memorials page for more information about the process for seeking approval for the erection of memorials as we are unable to approve any request that falls outside of these regulations.

Information for Funeral Directors

Local funeral directors will have Revd Nigel Moat's phone number. If he is unable to take the call, please leave a message and follow this up with a text message as this may get a quicker response. 

If you want to view tentative dates when the Revd Nigel Moat is available you can use this calendar tool. This will show his current availability. However, this does not take into account the availability of the actual churches which can be checked on our church availability calendar.

If using the above calendar tool, please remember that this can only provide tentative information and a funeral should not be booked without talking to Revd Nigel in the first instance. However, the calendar tool will guide you towards our availability. Of course, if Revd Nigel is not available, this does not mean a funeral can not go ahead as we have other members of the ministry team who would be able to take the funeral.