Planning
a Funeral or Memorial Service
Selecting
Clergy
Pilgrim Chapel welcomes clergy appropriate
to the needs of the bereaved.
1. If the family has a spiritual home in a church,
mosque, synagogue, temple, or other religious community, it may provide
a leader who can best lead services for the bereaved.
2. If the deceased had been hospitalized or in institutional
hospice care, the chaplain who worked with the deceased, and possibly the
family, might also provide the services desired.
3. Funeral homes keep lists of clergy who are skilled
and compassionate in offering their services.
4. A family wishing to design and lead their own
service without clergy may find websites such as this useful:
https://www.creative-funeral-ideas.com/planning-a-memorial-service.html
5. Pilgrim
Chapel has contacts with clergy in case none of the above options are
possible. Pilgrim Chapel may call on me to assist you. A brief biosketch
follows below.
NOTE: Grief counseling, family dynamics, spiritual
direction, and other important ways of moving forward, are best handled
by professionals specifically trained in these areas.
Initial Information
Whomever you select to help you plan
and lead the memorial service
may find the following information helpful. |
Name of the deceased with birth and death dates
Name and contact information for the person making
request for services
Funeral home name and arrangements
Religious preferences or civil preference
Circumstance of death (disease, accident, etc)
Service: funeral (with body) (with interment where)
or memorial (without body)
Obituary
Number of family and friends expected to attend
Scheduled speakers
Will others attending be invited to speak?
(This is not recommended except for closed family
observances.)
Music: live or recorded
Printed program details if any
Other wishes
About
Dr Barnet
If none of the preferred ministers listed above is available and you wish
me to help you plan and lead the service, please contact PILGRIM
CHAPEL -- 816.753.6719 -- to
make arrangements. You may want to know about me, so here is a bio-sketch:
 Dr
Vern Barnet, ordained in 1970, after parish service as senior minister,
founded
CRES in 1982 as a
multifaith resource for Kansas City, and in 1989 created the
Greater
Kansas City Interfaith Council. For eighteen years, his column, “Faiths
and Beliefs,” appeared each Wednesday in The Kansas City Star into
his retirement.
The recipient of many awards for his civic and professional activities,
and author of numerous articles, poems, and reviews, and several books,
he has taught at area colleges and seminaries, and has studied and spoken
throughout the United States and abroad. In his own church, he is an layman
active locally and regionally. He is noted on Wikipedia
and an extensive biography appears on the CRES website here.
He is minister emeritus at CRES.
He prefers to be called simply “Vern” — though if you want
to include his name on a printed program, please use this style:
The Reverend Vern Barnet,
DMn.
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