Bereavement
How do we cope when someone we love has died?
When someone loved has died, it is a time of sadness and pain, and sometimes we can feel overwhelmed by the shock of this loss. St Mary’s is here to help you through your bereavement. Please be assured of our thoughts and prayers.
What to do first?
There is a lot to think about as you adjust to your loss, and it can be a bewildering time. Close family and friends will be a resource now, and a good local undertaker will help with the various practical arrangements. Most people will want to arrange a funeral service to mark the close of a human life on earth. This is the opportunity for friends and family to express their grief, to give thanks for the life which has now completed its journey in this world and to commend the person into God’s keeping.
The funeral service can be very short and quiet with only a few members of the family present or an occasion of great solemnity with music, hymns and a packed church. Whatever the pattern of service, the words and actions all speak of a loving God and the preciousness to him of every human being.
The person who has died may have left a paragraph in their Will describing the sort of funeral arrangements they hoped for. Naturally, the family will want to keep to such arrangements as far as possible.
Who is entitled to a funeral at St Mary’s Church?
Anyone who was resident in Wendover is entitled to a funeral service at St Mary’s. This includes those who lived in Wendover but had to move away to take up residence in a residential care or nursing home. The same applies to burials in the churchyard, although if a family grave already exists it may be possible to add a family member (usually in the form of cremated remains) who may not have been resident in Wendover.
The leaflet below helps to explain how we look after St Mary’s churchyard and what the churchyard regulations from Oxford Diocese mean in relation to headstones and memorials.
<<insert leaflet pdf>>
Please contact the Parish Office to discuss funeral arrangements at St Mary’s.
What about help with bereavement?
We have a team of volunteers who would be very happy to meet up with anyone who is bereaved in order to be a support through care and listening. Members of this team can also recommend other sources of help if needed. Please contact the Parish Office who will put you in touch with a volunteer.
Comfort is also to be found in the promises of Jesus Christ, in the hope of the Resurrection and in the belief that the beloved person is safe in the hands of God.
A prayer of thanksgiving for the life of a loved one.
God our Father,
we thank you that you have made each of us in your own image,
and given us gifts and talents with which to serve you.
We thank you for N,
the years we shared with him/her,
the good we saw in him/her,
the love we received from him/her.
Now give us strength and courage to leave him/ her in your care,
confident in your promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
How do we cope when someone we love has died?
When someone loved has died, it is a time of sadness and pain, and sometimes we can feel overwhelmed by the shock of this loss. St Mary’s is here to help you through your bereavement. Please be assured of our thoughts and prayers.
What to do first?
There is a lot to think about as you adjust to your loss, and it can be a bewildering time. Close family and friends will be a resource now, and a good local undertaker will help with the various practical arrangements. Most people will want to arrange a funeral service to mark the close of a human life on earth. This is the opportunity for friends and family to express their grief, to give thanks for the life which has now completed its journey in this world and to commend the person into God’s keeping.
The funeral service can be very short and quiet with only a few members of the family present or an occasion of great solemnity with music, hymns and a packed church. Whatever the pattern of service, the words and actions all speak of a loving God and the preciousness to him of every human being.
The person who has died may have left a paragraph in their Will describing the sort of funeral arrangements they hoped for. Naturally, the family will want to keep to such arrangements as far as possible.
Who is entitled to a funeral at St Mary’s Church?
Anyone who was resident in Wendover is entitled to a funeral service at St Mary’s. This includes those who lived in Wendover but had to move away to take up residence in a residential care or nursing home. The same applies to burials in the churchyard, although if a family grave already exists it may be possible to add a family member (usually in the form of cremated remains) who may not have been resident in Wendover.
The leaflet below helps to explain how we look after St Mary’s churchyard and what the churchyard regulations from Oxford Diocese mean in relation to headstones and memorials.
St Marys Churchyard leaflet
Please contact the Parish Office to discuss funeral arrangements at St Mary’s.
What about help with bereavement?
We have a team of volunteers who would be very happy to meet up with anyone who is bereaved in order to be a
support through care and listening. Members of this team can also recommend other sources of help if needed. Please contact the Parish Office who will put you in touch with a volunteer.
Comfort is also to be found in the promises of Jesus Christ, in the hope of the Resurrection and in the belief that the beloved person is safe in the hands of God.
A prayer of thanksgiving for the life of a loved one:
God our Father,
we thank you that you have made each of us in your own image,
and given us gifts and talents with which to serve you.
We thank you for N,
the years we shared with him/her,
the good we saw in him/her,
the love we received from him/her.
Now give us strength and courage to leave him/ her in your care,
confident in your promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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