Arising out of many year's experience of helping to lead local church worship and counselling work in a children's hospice, this is the first of three new volumes that focuses on the occasions when many non-churchgoers visit a church: for christenings, weddings, funerals, and memorials. These rites of passage present key opportunities for occasional visitors to encounter the Christian faith. If they are imaginatively handled a lifelong interest can be aroused. If they are insensitively done, people can be put of for life. This practical resource offers prayers, forms of words and many tried and tested ideas for creating rituals that give support at a time of great need following a death. It will enable the creation of rites (based on the authorized liturgical texts) that are beautiful, memorable and meaningful. Particular help is given for that most difficult of pastoral challenges, the death of a child and the care of the bereaved family.

Offers liturgical material for the journey of each individual through life. For each key element of this journey (birth, marriage, healing, death), it provides both material for key ‘public’ events and resources for ‘private’ pastoral care.

This liturgical resource will help guide pastors and other church workers as they help church members through the bereavement process. The Presbyterian Supplemental Liturgical Resource (SLT) series includes liturgies that were used on a trial basis in preparation for the development of the Book of Common Worship. Though superseded by the Book of Common Worship, SLR resources remain valuable, both for the variety of liturgical texts they contain and for the commentary on the text, which contains rich historical, theological, and practical background.

Every service that marks a death or the anniversary of a death, remembers the life of a unique person and should be prepared with utmost care and thought, and approached with reverence. We tread on holy ground when we accompany those who are experiencing loss. This practical and extremely helpful resource book provides guidelines for creating individualised funeral, thanksgiving and memorial services and includes a wide range of prayers, readings and reflections for each stage of the service from the gathering words of welcome to the committal and final blessing, and suggestions for symbolic acts of remembrance. Resources are also included for creating special services, such as for those facing their first Christmas after a bereavement. All resources may be downloaded from the accompanying CD Rom. Pastoral guidance is offered for every step of the way in funeral ministry, including the first visit to a bereaved family, prayers for a funeral visit, making practical arrangements with funeral directors, crafting orders of service, using music and images, and supporting those in particularly distressing circumstances.