Letter: Christian funerals

In response to your editorial and article on funerals (24 January) may I say that Christian funerals of Christian people are uplifting and inspiring since they are consciously based on the resurrection of Jesus and his gift and promise of eternal life.

Christian funerals for people who are not confessing Christians are conducted by the Church of Scotland in parishes throughout the land if requested.

Fragments of belief in God and rudimentary faith may accompany such requests. For many their understanding is informed vaguely by 1,500 years of Christianity in Scotland.

There remains a form of "folk religion" in which life after death is affirmed as a continuation of what has happened in this.

So words about the departed may include "God needed a centre-half" or "They'll be some party going on up there now".

Often a latent spiritualism in common understanding in expressed in words such as "He/she will be looking down on us".

My Way is the archetypal expression of human ego, and while other pop songs may be life experience theme tunes, they are essentially backward looking.

The departing of a human life is something sacred and thought should focus on what is going to happen next since that may depend on what has happened before.

However, if there is a general rejection of Christian faith with its positive message about the future, then human introversion, enforced jollity and petty idolatry are all that are left. These are poor substitutes for Jesus Christ.

(Rev Dr) Robert Anderson

Blackburn & Seafield Church

MacDonald Gardens

East Lothian