I saw a sad statistic in the Telegraph and Argus, the local paper from my home city of Bradford. Apparently last year the local authority spent 130000 pounds on 70 Public health funerals, traditionally known as paupers funerals.
These were funerals for people who didn’t have relatives willing to come forward and organise the funeral, who did not have enough funds in their estate to pay for their burial or cremation.
This happened to an old neighbour of ours. Because we knew the funeral director who had the contract, we were able to arrange for me to take his funeral and a couple of other neighbours to come along.This happened at the same time my mum and father in law died. In contrast,b they died with family around them and their funerals were attended by many.
We often talk about the big ethical issues that matter to us as Christians and we focus on death, especially on abortion and euthanasia. However, isn’t this also an ethical indicator of the state of our society. It should grieve us that there are people who die alone, mourned by nobody.
Faithroots 