By Ruth Jewell Dip.F.C.
March 2025
Whenever I am talking about the Life in Words Project, people always seem surprised that we are happy to include scripts from any funeral service. That service may have been led by a member of the clergy, a family member, the funeral director, a Humanist or civil celebrant. To us, it really doesn’t matter who led the service, in fact the wider the range of people the better.
What we are aiming for is a whole range of scripts, and if we only used scripts from civil celebrant led services, then we would narrow down the research field no end. The more scripts we can preserve, from the widest field possible, the better!
This also means that we aren’t just looking for recent scripts, we will happily take scripts from services that were delivered years ago. This will help those looking at how services have changed – how lives have changed etc. The research angle widens with the more variety we can provide, but for me it is also about how every script is precious and deserves to be preserved, because it tells someone’s story, that person is precious, and their story deserves to be saved.
Equally I am asked why we don’t just want the ‘eulogy’ or ‘story’. Why do we want the whole script? That is easy to answer, as the service is not just one part, but everything that is included is an important part of the whole. Music, poetry, other contributors, all come together to help to mould and tell the person’s story.
As a celebrant we also spread out information and weave it through the script, so the words of welcome may contain information about where the wake will be held (useful to those researching the type of venues used for wakes, whether those have changed, etc.), or our introduction to a contributor may shine light on their relationship with the deceased person.
All of this means that the whole script is of value. Again, the more we have, the more useful it will be to a broader variety of researchers. So, when the time comes, we will be asking for whole scripts, from any type of funeral service, recent or in the past, no matter who delivered it.