“What was your first experience of grief?” ‘‘If you could ask one question of someone you love who has died, what would it be?’. In many circumstances these questions might simply be ones that don’t get asked as, on the whole, we are not terribly good as a society about talking about death. Our difficulty in talking about this universal subject applies as much within the church as it does out in wider society. In many ways this is odd given what the Christian faith tells us about death and after death. To try and counter this we have been attempting in the last few months to provide space for people to explore some questions about the end of life.
We held a series of morning sessions in October and November at the Cathedral under the title “End of Life matters”. At these we provided a space for information and discussion about a variety of related topics – grief, dignity in dependency and in relation to practical matters such as pre-death legal planning and funeral planning.
The engagement of the people attending the sessions and some of the conversations that they provoked has led us to schedule further sessions in the New Year. In these we are expecting to cover areas such as living with dementia, finding meaning after a death and dealing with the death of a child. Whilst these are all sensitive topics we are hoping that by involving speakers with knowledge and by allowing time to consider how a Christian faith might speak into these areas the sessions will prove of value. These are to be run on Saturday mornings during Lent 2025.
We are also planning to host a half-day event, open to anyone, which will cover some of the topics from the sessions that have already been held. This will be held in the run up to Lent.
Please do keep an eye on our website for more information soon about the above events.
Revd Duncan Milwain