Earthed in Hope - Print.

Earthed in Hope: Dying, Death and Funerals – A Pakeha Anglican Perspective.

Alister G. Hendery

Discover a profound resource that enriches funeral ministry, addressing the spiritual, cultural, and practical dimensions of death and dying from a Pakeha Anglican perspective.

This book

• Is a comprehensive resource that offers insights and practical suggestions for all involved in funeral ministry.
• Takes an inclusive approach that is relevant for Anglican ministers and those from other church traditions, and enhances diverse funeral practices.
• Addresses contemporary issues and tackles modern challenges in funeral services, including pluralism and societal denial of death.
• Provides guidance on effectively ministering to grieving individuals and families.
• Highlights successful, life-centred funeral practices developed in New Zealand.
• Encourages deep contemplation of the spiritual significance of funerals and the rituals surrounding them.
• Emphasises the importance of proclaiming Christian hope amidst grief and loss.

Features

• A thorough exploration of funerals in contemporary society.
• Practical suggestions for leading meaningful funeral services.
• Focuses on the unique context of Aotearoa New Zealand.
• Addresses key questions surrounding funerals, grief, and the nature of death.
• A well-organised layout: Clear headings, subheadings, and a helpful index for easy navigation.

Soft cover: 300 pages
Published: 26 November 2014
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 inches
Colour: Black and White
ISBN: 9781502488251

[8 in stock 5 Oct 2024
Allow 2 weeks when they have sold]

Click here for eBooks

Book description 

Alister G. Hendery offers a rich resource that bridges the gap between contemporary funeral practices and deep-rooted spiritual traditions.

This comprehensive guide serves as an invaluable tool for ministers, celebrants, counsellors, and anyone supporting the bereaved.

With sensitivity and insight, Hendery addresses pressing questions about the role of funerals, the societal denial of death, and the unique challenges of ministering in a pluralistic culture.

Exploring the evolution of funeral practices in New Zealand, he highlights innovative approaches that have emerged, particularly the shift towards life-centred funerals led by celebrants.

Through practical suggestions, spiritual reflections, and cultural considerations, Earthed in Hope empowers funeral ministers to meet the needs of the grieving in a contemporary setting while emphasising the Christian hope that underpins these significant rituals.

Whether you are leading a service for a child, navigating the complexities of suicide, or encouraging personal involvement in caring for the dead, this book offers the guidance and support necessary to approach these challenges with compassion and grace.

Embrace the journey of death and dying with confidence and understanding, fostering hope for the bereaved and honouring the memories of those who have died.

Reviewers comments

“A quick scan of death notices in a newspaper reveals the fading influence of Christian faith in this country. Many funerals now are held at a crematorium or a funeral director’s chapel. Some of these funerals will be taken by a minister of religion; but increasingly funeral directors and celebrants have taken over the traditional roles of a minister of the church. We live in a world where there are multiple views on “what comes next” after death, mostly at variance with the theological witness of scripture. Even church funerals often celebrate the life which has ended, rather than proclaiming Christian hope in the midst of grief and death.

This is the terrain surveyed by Hendery, a Pakeha Anglican priest. His writing is marked deeply by his trust and hope in God’s grace and equally by his long pastoral experience.…" Anne Priestley

“…For those concerned with funeral ministry there is much in this book that will repay careful reflection: how God and Christian hope are presented, the avoidance of euphemisms and idealistic eulogies, ritual at and after the funeral, funerals following suicide, funerals of children and children at funerals. Hendery states: We need to be able to look death in the face and be willing to wrestle with the theological, spiritual and emotional demands that this takes. Earthed in Hope offers significant help for those who are serious about doing this.” John Meredith, Touchstone June 2015

“The book is honest and sensitive, acknowledging issues of spirituality ‘verses’ religion, and recognises that so much of our culture is death-denying and uses euphemisms…The book is very well organised, there are clear headings, subheadings, notes, and a helpful bibliography and index.” Rev Bosco Peters

---

From the Foreword

“As a priest in my early twenties I became acquainted with death and dying in a way that puzzled and unsettled my friends. When most were starting out on their careers in diverse fields of endeavour we would meet to catch up. My stories of the work I was called to tended to be a conversation stopper. It was hard to convey the growing sense of deep privilege I was experiencing. It was hard to share the deep intimacy and grace that my role drew me into. And in most cases it was inappropriate to do so anyway.

One of the consequences of my comparative youth was that I found myself increasingly asked to lead funerals for children and young people. Few things stretched me more or left me feeling more impotent, and yet few aspects of my ministry were more fulfilling.

A key aspect of this work of a priest, for me at least, was a journey deep into my own self awareness which forced me to face my own mortality very early in my life. Far from being a sad and melancholy experience I found a deep and unshakeable joy through my encounter with so many families who were grieving the loss of someone they loved. I discovered, time and again, the abiding presence of God. While, more often than not, it was inappropriate for me to give explicit voice to this, I was frequently aware that those I was with had a profound sense of that presence too.

Alister Hendery is offering us a great gift in this beautiful, resource-filled and comprehensive book. He has aimed to assist those within Tikanga Pakeha of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand to undertake ministry with the dying and the bereaved with creativity and sensitivity. This book certainly achieves that goal. But it offers much, much more than that and I hope it will find a significantly wider audience. In simple and unassuming style Alister provides not only a comprehensive resource, but a wise, insightful and at times challenging guide across the uniquely privileged landscape the pastor is called to traverse.

Alister quotes Paul Tillich’s phrase ‘the first duty of love is to listen’. This book helps to tune the ear of the pastor who listens care-fully. I am going to place a copy of this book in the hands of every person I ordain from now on.”

+ Philip Richardson
Primate and Archbishop – Tikanga Pakeha

  

About the Author

Alister Hendery is an Anglican priest who has served in a wide variety of parish and diocesan settings. He has also worked in private practice as a counsellor, specialising in grief and loss, and as a funeral celebrant. Currently he is an interim priest, ministering with parishes in times of transition. Funeral ministry has been a focus of his life for 35 years. He has an ongoing interest in death studies and continues to journey with people experiencing loss and change in all spheres of life, as well offering mentoring and training to lay and ordained ministers. In addition to his extensive pastoral experience he has read widely on this topic and Earthed in Hope includes many insights from other writers both in New Zealand and overseas. Hendery is well placed to advise on the care of the dying, the bereaved and the dead.

To arrange for Alister to speak to your group, contact him at alisterhendery@ icloud.com

  

Contents

• Foreword
• Preface
• Definitions
• Language
• Referencing

1 — Introduction: A Changing Landscape

2 — Universal Dimensions

• Doing Something with the Body
• Making Space for our Mortality
• Lost for Words – The Need for Ritual
• Pastorally Caring

3 — Today’s Funeral Terrain

• Personalised, Life-Centred and Celebrant-Led
• Personal and Prospective
• The Decades of Change – Facing up to Pluralism
• Spirituality and Religion
• The New Zealand Way of Death
• Down the Green Path
• Handling our Dead
• Death in our Midst?
• The Medicalisation of Death – A Denial of the Reality
• The Uniqueness of Grief
• Grief and Death on the Internet
• Hope for Lost Travellers
• The Impact of Tikanga Maori

4 — What Comes Next?

• An Existential Niggle
• Nature and Seasons
• The Living Dead
• Continuing Love and Heavenly Reunions
• A Spiritual Potpourri

5 — How Might We Respond?

• Threat or Opportunity?
• God Present
• Why are we Involved?
• A Starting Point

6 — A Theological Story

• Through a Glass Darkly
• The Voice of A New Zealand Prayer Book
• Death and Beyond in the Hebrew Scriptures
• Going Along with the Pharisees
• No. Plato, No
• The Body Matters – The Reality Matters
• Questions about Heaven and Hell
• A Place for Doubt
• The Most Searching of Questions
• Let us Lament
• Sitting Shiva

7 — A Liturgical Story

• Lessons from the Early Centuries
• The Peculiar Anglican Story
• A New Zealand Story
• Liturgies for the Journey

8 — A Time to Die

• Ars Moriendi – Dying Well
• Being with the Dying
• Prayer at Time of Death
• The Shape of the Liturgy
• Prayer Before a Funeral
• The Shape of the Liturgy

9 — The Funeral Service

• The Shape of the Liturgy
• Enhancing the Funeral – Additional Directions
• Funeral Eucharist
• Memorial Services
• Arranging the Funeral
• Musical Overtones
• Tributes
• The Address
• Funeral Communities
• Communal Ritual
• Ritual for the Body
• Ritual Flowers and Ritual Food
• Guilt and Forgiveness
• The Dead at their Funeral
• Others at the Funeral

10 — Suicides

• The Historical Legacy
• A Cave of Agony and Darkness
• At the Funeral

11 — Children

• The Death of a Child
• Death of a Newborn or in Pregnancy
• Honouring and Treasuring
• A Service for the Funeral of a Child
• The Shape of the Liturgy
• Children and Death
• Dangerous Euphemisms
• Children at Funerals

12 — Rites After the Funeral

• Confusion at Cremation
• Questions of Cremation
• The Committal of Ashes
• The Shape of the Liturgy
• Prayers in the House After Death
• The Shape of the Liturgy
• The Unveiling of a Memorial
• The Shape of the Liturgy
• Beyond the Funeral Liturgies

13 — The Minister

• A Multiplicity of Roles
• Self Care
• The Minister and Death

Selected Bibliography

Index