The Co-op's new report makes interesting reading. It says that, among other things, "over half of today's funerals are a celebration of a life." I don't think it would be unreasonable to say that this trend was begun by Humanist celebrants, myself included, who were the only people providing alternatives to traditional Christian funerals before other people cottoned on to the demand, about twenty years ago.
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Seems perfectly reasonable to me to say that, although I'm not sure it's entirely valid to polarise funerals between "a celebration of a life" and 'the rest,' as it were. I've heard Christian ministers use the phrase. My own ceremonies usually seem to come out as a balance between mourning for a loss and celebrating a life, both things needing to be there. But certainly "celebrating a life" is a change from regarding a life principally as a precursor to an after-life, which used, I guess, to be a dominant general theme in Christian funerals.
I didn't intend to claim that all "celebration" funerals are ours, but I think we led the way. Somewhere or other, I have a press cutting about the way that some clergy were approaching the BHA for advice a few years back. It was sent to me by Robert Ashby, the former BHA CEO. I'll look for it tomorrow.
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