The Burial of the Dead: A Rookie Anglican Guide to the Funeral Service
The day of a funeral begins with grief. The family of the deceased feels the sharp pain of loss. Friends, too, share in this suffering, as the apostles teach us, to “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:5). As the congregation arrives at the church or funeral home, it is understandably downcast.
In this moment, the liturgy of the Burial of the Dead (BCP 2019, pgs. 246-266) has a special power. It does not ignore or minimize the pain. Its ancient form and the weight of its words reflect the solemn transitions of both the deceased and those of us who carry on without them.
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But amid this darkness, and with complete honesty about its cost, the liturgy rekindles the hope of the gospel. In Christ, though we grieve, we do not grieve “as those who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Rather, we grieve with a fundamental confidence in the good news of Christ who triumphed over the grave.
For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
1 Thessalonians 4:14
The Burial of the Dead: Overview
The core of the burial service was compiled by Thomas Cranmer for the 1549 and 1552 Books of Common Prayer. He reduced the length of the medieval liturgy and shifted its emphasis, replacing the anxiety of purgatory and prayers for the dead with “the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Committal Prayer, 261).
Anthems at the Procession of the Body
The service begins with the procession of the body (the casket is now closed) and a set of scripture-based anthems. Three of the five anthems go back to Cranmer’s original liturgy, and are worth quoting here in full.
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord. Whoever believes in me, though he die, ye shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
John 11:25-26
For I know that my Redeemer lives, at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
Job 19:25-27
For we brought nothing into the world, and it is certain we carry nothing out. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.
1 Timothy 6:7; Job 1:21
This selection and arrangement of anthems is Cranmer at his best, a combination of theological precision, poetic refinement, and pastoral concern. The opening words of Christ were originally spoken to Martha as she grieved her brother Lazarus’s death, and it’s worth remembering that Jesus wept with Martha even as he promised eternal life to those who believe. Job’s prophecy describes the bodily resurrection even after the death of our flesh. The final anthem from Timothy and Job reorients our hearts toward gratitude and thanksgiving.
Prayers, Greetings, and (Remembrances)
The historic liturgy moves directly from the anthems to the readings, but modern versions, including the BCP 2019, provide options for prayers naming the deceased and a greeting from the officiant. This is practical especially when a funeral brings together many people who do not normally worship together.
Technically, the Prayer Book recommends that personal remembrances occur before or after the service (see BCP 2019, pg 246), but in my experience, family and friends often want to share a few stories about the deceased. If so, the best place to locate these remembrances is immediately after the greeting and before the reading of the lessons. This way, the officiant can introduce and preside over the remembrances, which helps shape their length and subject matter. When personal remembrances are included, a hymn makes for a good transition to the lessons.
The Lessons and Sermon
Historic prayer books appointed readings from Psalm 39, Psalm 90, and 1 Corinthians 15. Modern prayer books also include slots for Old Testament and Gospel readings, providing a variety of suggestions for each. When a burial service will include Holy Communion, Isaiah 25 is particularly appropriate, as it prophesies a final feast and celebration over the defeat of death:
On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces.
Isaiah 25:6-8a
The 1662 BCP did not appoint a sermon, reminding us that great scriptures can speak for themselves. Still, a carefully crafted (and not overlong) sermon can be very powerful.
Though the preacher can reference the deceased, he ought to turn the spotlight to Jesus, to his atoning death and triumphant resurrection. These objective truths keep us spiritually grounded in the face of death.
After death, it is natural to seek to console each other with conventional and clichéd sayings. But these do not satisfy at a deep level. What hurting hearts require, above all, is the hope of the gospel of Christ. In Christ alone, we can feel an authentic joy as we join in Paul’s mockery of death:
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:55-57
Creed, Prayers, and Communion
The Apostles’ Creed is especially appropriate at the burial service, and for two reasons. First, as the Creed recited at baptism, it bookends the Christian soul’s temporal life. Second, the Apostles’ Creed proclaims belief in “the resurrection of the body.” This is similar to the Nicene Creed, which declares “the resurrection of the dead,” but the reference to the “resurrection of the body” is more concrete and especially powerful in the presence of the deceased’s body.
In the context of a burial service, Holy Communion takes on a new dimension. While we typically think of the Eucharist as communion with our Lord Jesus Christ, it is also, by necessary consequence, communion with all the saints who share in Christ’s body. Because Christian burial commemorates the deceased’s ongoing spiritual life and looks to the hope of his bodily resurrection, celebrating Communion is a powerful way to remember and revive our ongoing life together. While Anglicans do not pray to the deceased, we nevertheless rejoice that we share a spiritual life with those who are asleep in Christ. This is the “fellowship” referenced in the first of the “Additional Prayers” included at the end of the burial office:
O God, the King of saints, we praise and glorify your holy Name for all your servants who have finished their course in your faith and fear: for the blessed Virgin Mary; of the holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs; and for all your other righteous servants, known to us and unknown; and we pray that, encouraged by their examples, and strengthened by their fellowship, we also may be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
BCP 2019, 263
The Commendation and The Triple Alleluia
The Commendation (256, BCP 2019) begins with a responsive prayer borrowed from the Eastern Orthodox Liturgy. Notably, it uses a triple Alleluia, typical in the Eastern tradition but rare in Western liturgies. Unfortunately, the BCP 2019 places this triple Alleluia only in the officiant’s mouth, where it would be more fitting for the people to speak it. I suggest a revision to the structure of the responsive prayer as follows:
OFFICIANT: Give rest, O Christ, to your servant with your saints,
ALL: Where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting.
OFFICIANT: You only are immortal, the creator and maker of mankind; and we are mortal, formed of the earth, and to earth shall we return. For so did you decree, saying, ‘You are dust, and to dust you shall return.’
ALL: All of us go down to the dust; yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
OFFICIANT: Give rest, O Christ, to your servant with your saints,
ALL: Where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting.
Western liturgies feature a triple Alleluia only once in the liturgical year: at the reading of the gospel on the Easter Vigil or Easter Day (This is referenced in the BCP 2019 on page 592, where the rubrics identify the “Alleluia” as particularly appropriate before the gospel at the Easter Vigil). It is deeply appropriate, and deeply moving, to say the triple alleluia once again at the grave. Just as Jesus died and rose again, so will we!
The Committal: Our Sure and Certain Hope
The burial service concludes with a Committal at the grave site. Since this happens in a separate place, it is, in one sense, another service, and it begins with its own anthems, the last of which I will quote here:
You know, O Lord, the secrets of our hearts; shut not your ears to our prayer; but spare us, Lord most holy. O God most mighty, O holy and merciful Savior, most worthy Judge eternal; do not let us, in our final hour, through the pain of death, fall away from you.
BCP 2019, p. 260
Cranmer adapted these anthems from medieval liturgies, and their solemn tone compares only to selected psalms and the Collects for Good Friday. The point is not to obscure our resurrection hope, but to reckon with the reality of the grave and to pray for the faith by which we receive Christ’s righteousness.
The dominant note of hope returns in the prayer of committal, which refers to our “sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life.” The BCP 2019 provides two versions of this prayer; the second is closest to the original.
Forasmuch as it has pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother, here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground ; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our perishable body, that it may be like his own glorious body, according to the mighty working of his Spirit, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself. Amen.
BCP 2019, p. 261
In Conclusion: The Burial Service as a Celebration of Life
In contemporary culture, there is an understandable trend to hold a “celebration of life” instead of a formal funeral or burial service. Such “celebrations of life” often dispense with hymns, prayers, scriptures, and sermons, focusing instead on personal remembrances of the deceased.
To some extent, this trend reflects a legitimate criticism of funerals that strike only a single somber note. Moreover, a funeral should cultivate gratitude for the deceased’s life and include moments of laughter and happy remembrance alongside sadness, grief, and loss. As I noted above, personal remembrances can be incorporated, if desired, with sensitivity and for the benefit of all.
But the traditional elements of the burial service are, in fact, an even deeper celebration of life, for they celebrate the resurrected life of Jesus Christ. This is the true source of our hope, the wellspring of our deeper laughter. For when the trumpet sounds, we will come through the grave to new and unending life. We will meet Christ himself.
Photo by annastills, courtesy of Canva. Digitally edited by Jacob Davis.
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