How can you choose an appropriate funeral, and someone to conduct it? Theres an increasing choice of funeral styles, but also more confusion. Many still choose traditional Christian funerals, with familiar hymns and so on, but this isnt appropriate for a significant proportion of the population. Various surveys indicate that only a minority attend church regularly and that few are interested in organised religion. Many young people arent religious, while many older people have developed unconventional personal religious beliefs. Many say that theyre Christian, but what they mean by that varies. Of those who say that they dont believe in God, some will say they believe in an afterlife.

Because of these changing attitudes and beliefs, many are choosing funerals that are more personal, with modern music and family tributes, but with one or two familiar hymns and maybe a prayer as well.

So now there are traditional church funerals with the traditional liturgy (a prescribed form of worship), non-conformist Christian funerals, religious funerals in the manner of a minority faith, unconventional semi-religious funerals, and non-religious funerals.

Humanist funerals fall into the latter category, but to add to the confusion, theres more than one type of Humanist Celebrant.

In the 19th century, the only people who were likely to be given secular Humanist funerals were atheist members of the labour movement and of the ethical societies, which sought social change without religion. The British Humanist Association was founded in the mid-20th century and its members were given Humanist funerals. They set up a ceremonies sub-committee in 1978, but until 1991, atheists and agnostics in Suffolk and N E Essex were unlike