ABSTRACT
In 1965 – the very year of Geoffrey Gorer's book on the social semiotics of death and bereavement, the Liturgical Commission of the Church of England offered an answer to the question "What are funerals supposed to do?" in its introduction to the Second Series of Alternative Services. The Christian funeral is more than just an occasion for human kindness; it is also an arena of confrontation and disclosure. The sociologist, Tony Walter, proposes that ministers should spend time with families planning funeral, encouraging them to take the initiative in making the arrangements rather than leaving it to the professionals – ministers or funeral directors. The Christian Churches have for most of their history held to an anthropology which has distinguished between body and soul. Early twenty-first-century Britain is in huge social flux, and resultant patterns of shift weaken the social groupings which normally foster common history, identity, customs, language, and memory which give shape and meaning to social ritual.
