Church of England feels it has the Monopoly of Death.

The Church of England recently announced a glossy marketing campaign (which no doubt cost thousands of pounds) to regain the ground lost to Civil Celebrants and Independent Clergy in respect of Funeral Ministry.

Of course one of the reasons more people are choosing a Civil service or one led by independent Clergy is that we give families ABSOLUTE control over what happens in teh service, we never impose a particular way of doing things or form of words. The C of E don't like that at all. Personally 2015 has been a bad year for me in this respect. Five years of attacks, underhand conversations and a few choice words on the golf course , no doubt, have seen my work as an independent Priest offering unique, bespoke and loving services to bereaved families , all but wiped out with the exception of 2 of 3 funeral firms now using me. I have NEVER had a complaint from a family, indeed quite the opposite, but I have evidence that the C of E have been actively seeking to "remove me from the funeral circuit".

Having reached the end of my tether a few weeks ago with Anglican (Church of England) Clergy both being rude to my face when bumping into them at the Crematorium but also phoning undertakers and telling undertakers that I shouldn't be used - I took it upon myself to write a four page letter to the Bishop's of Norwich, Ely and St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. It was a very polite letter , appealing to their sense of ecumenism, and simply flagging up the point that partisan politics has no place in bereavement care - what I do and am able to do is very different to their clergy. Not surprisingly none of them had the courtesy to reply in any form. So, I decided to go above their heads and send a copy of my letter together with a note saying that I was disappointment that no reply was forthcoming to the Boss - Justin Welby. He is sadly out of the country so one of his minions has replied..........

."Dear Mr Morgan - Archbishop Justin is in China at the moment and so I am writing to thank you for your message. He will be sorry that you received no reply from the bishops to whom you wrote.

Yours sincerely...."

My initial reaction was "Oh, right, OK, Not sure how to take this........ I assume this is Anglican speak for sod off. They haven't taken note of ANYTHING I have said".

The Church of England is committed to working with other faith groups, committed to diversity and my original letter pointed out the distress that their actions caused in one particular case I was involved with.

I am astounded by this response, but not surprised. What they preach is not what they practice - worshipper beware!

Oh well, I will plod on, practicing what I preach, LOVE.

#ChurchofEngland #Funerals #Bereavementcare