Late last week, our son's best friend lost his grandmother, who lived at home with them. We've know the family for 9 years due to the kids' friendship so Mrs. M and I attended the funeral. Thing is, they are Ismaili Muslims, so this was a Muslim funeral. Very, very different from Christian or secular funeral/memorial. Much of the service is just chanting of prayers and reciting verses from the Qu'ran. There is a paying of respect to the deceased. Men and women are separate (as usual for Muslim services/rites).

I saw a FB post about a memorial service for an acquaintance.  I quickly called a close friend who was closer to him to see if she knew.  Luckily, she already did and it turns out he had died months ago.

This summer, I went to a memorial for an in-law who had died in the spring.

In both cases, as far as I know, there was no funeral.  Is it typical to have a memorial quite a bit of time after a person passes away if there is no funeral?

Our congregation is hosting a funeral for a community member. This man did not have a church connection. We are providing tea, coffee and dishes for the reception. A caterer is doing the food.

We have set up extra chairs for the services-and an additional screen and projector in the lobby.

Our big room has had a makeove and is now full of small table with tableclothses and looks great.

We'll be doing the dishes and clean up.

Does your church have a fee schedule for funerals?

How much does your church charge for funerals? expanded below

 A few years ago I stumbled upon this poem. There was no author mentioned in the resource in which I found it, and I've often found it a valuable reading to use (especially right before an interment) as it really does (to me at least) put life and its purpose (even with all its struggles and challenges) into some sort of perspective. I just thought I'd share it.