If you select a date, you will be asked to give pertinent information for church records and for creating a baptismal certificate. Usually the funeral director is the person who contacts the pastor and church to arrange date and time for a service, whether it is to be held at the funeral home or at the church or another location. Occasionally family members will make those arrangements by calling the pastor. Such arrangements should always be confirmed with the funeral director. The pastor will contact family to arrange for a time to talk together about the person who has died and about what will be included in the service.
Every effort is made to make the funeral or memorial service personal.
If so, they should seek a non-religious officiant. Because First Church is a Christian church, a service led by our pastor lifts up the hope as particularly revealed through Jesus Christ. However, in cases where the person who has died is part of an interfaith family, the pastor exercises great sensitivity with regard to non-Christian family members. She has also on occasion conducted funerals or memorial services for persons of other faiths, and she seeks to incorporate elements that will be meaningful in that context. For resources helpful in times of grief, you may wish to seek out the web page Kir-Shalom.