Funerals

We believe it is very important that each human life at its end is laid to rest with both dignity and prayer.

At St Edmund's, funerals are services of thanksgiving. With readings, hymns and prayers, we commend the departed to the love and safe-keeping of God and support those who are mourning.

Please contact the Chaplain (Email: oslochaplain@osloanglicans.no or Tel: 22 69 22 14) to arrange a funeral - or to help you plan your own, with the hymns and music and readings you would like.

At times of grief and loss, you may find the following prayers and readings to be helpful:

There is so much that will never now be spoken,
a need to forgive and be forgiven; a need which dwells
within the desire to also speak of gratitude, of love and the pain of parting.
Breathe your life into these longings, Lord Jesus, that even now your gracious
Spirit would bring healing, light and peace. Amen.

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.
In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.
I am going there to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am. (John 14:1–4).

We give back to you, O God, those whom you gave to us.
You did not lose them when you gave them to us, and we do not lose them by their return to you.
Your Son has taught us that life is eternal and love cannot die.
So death is only a horizon, and a horizon is only the limit of our sight.
Open our eyes to see more clearly, and draw us close to you, so that we may know we are nearer to our loved ones, who are with you.
You have told us that you are preparing a place for us:
prepare us, that where you are, we may be always, O dear Lord of life and death. (William Penn).

Be gentle with the one who walks with grief.
If it is you, be gentle with yourself.
Swiftly forgive; walk slowly, pausing often.
Take time, be gentle as you walk with grief.
(From Walking with Grief, George MacDonald).