Living the Spirit of Hope: Planning a Funeral

A.J. Pell is editor of the Canadian Evangelical Review and an instructor
of Liturgy, Anglican Studies Program, Regent College, Vancouver.

This series of handbooks is a simple introduction to the Anglican
liturgies most commonly encountered by average people. Each walks the
reader through the service to enable thoughtful participation in it and,
in the case of marriage and funerals, also guides the reader in making
practical decisions about the conduct of the service. The Leader’s
Resource for Baptism and Eucharist is designed to help a layperson lead
a study group on either the baptism or Eucharist volumes.

Living the Spirit of Baptism does a good job of helping a person
understand the various parts of the service, but John Hill’s Thinking
About Baptism (1991) is better at helping a person decide whether or not
to seek baptism for a child or oneself. Living the Spirit of Eucharist
is a good guide through the service, but doesn’t really answer the
question of why celebrate the sacrament. Living the Spirit of Marriage,
which also provides a good guide to the service, makes its most
important contribution in the opening pages, where the couple are
reminded that marriage is about families and communities, not just two
people in love.

Living the Spirit of Hope offers valuable guidance, but giving it to
the newly bereaved would be too late; the information really needs to be
digested long before a death. The Leader’s Resource for Baptism and
Eucharist is probably unnecessary; it is not a suitable replacement for
a baptismal preparation class and the Eucharist volume is not rich
enough to merit a group study guide.