Bird Cherry leaves in Autumn.

Arranging a Funeral

When a loved one dies, you can suddenly find yourself faced with so much to think about - just when it is so very hard to think. We are here to offer advice, whatever your decisions and wishes may be.You may just want to give us a call.  Or you may like to have a look at options and ideas outlined on this page.

For those whose preferred or first language is British Sign Language, we have a Volunteer BSL Communication Support Worker who is sometimes available.

When thinking about funeral arrangements that make sense for a nature-lover, for someone who strived to be eco-friendly, caring for the natural world, you may be interested in our sustainability choices chart. This offers guidance so you can make decisions that are best for the planet.

Sun Rising's Simple Funeral Arrangement Service

At Sun Rising you don't need to use a funeral director - you can use our simple arrangement service instead.  For those who would like a simple funeral, or would just like to avoid the traditional feel of a funeral led by a funeral director, we can do all the essentials from collecting your loved one to the burial itself.  Our simple funerals are stress-free, graceful, family-oriented and much more affordable.  About half our families choose this option.

We have a range of ethical coffins, from cardboard to English willow.  We can also offer shroud burials.  We can provide a simple black hearsette, or our own VW van, or help a family if they'd like to bring the coffin to Sun Rising themselves.

If a family would like a celebrant, flowers, music, we can give guidance. Where family or friends would like to act as bearers, carrying the coffin to the graveside or using our coffin bier, we can walk them through, step by step.

If you are considering our simple service, please do get in touch. We can either speak on the telephone, meet at the burial ground, or (if you are not far away) arrange a home visit. We can provide you with an estimate based on your own specific needs and wishes, and we can walk each step of the way with you, providing exactly the amount of support that feels right. And if it becomes clear that the services of a funeral director would in fact be useful, we can help the family choose the firm that is right for them and their needs.

Using a Funeral Director

Using a funeral director will give you a much wider range of services than we can provide, such as the option of viewing your loved one in an open casket in a chapel of rest, or having the coffin in church before a committal at Sun Rising.   A funeral director will also offer a traditional hearse, limousines and printed orders of service.  If you do decide to use a funeral director, we would still encourage you to come to Sun Rising, where we can talk through the flow of the funeral, ascertain which facilities you would like to use and how else we can support you.  You will also be able to choose the plot.

Although we can't recommend any one in particular, we offer here a list of funeral directors local to Sun Rising. Those marked * have organised funerals at the burial ground. Those with more than one * use us regularly.

DIY Funerals

Some families wish to organise the funeral entirely by themselves, buying the coffin, laying out and bringing their loved one to the burial ground under their own steam.  At Sun Rising, we can give guidance and support for fully DIY funerals, ascertaining where help or additional services may be needed, and providing these with discretion and sensitivity.  If you are interested in looking into this, you may like the Home Funeral Network.

Embalming

Because embalming (or 'hygienic treatment') and its use of toxic chemicals is very seldom necessary, and because our ethos is to protect the environment and help the nature reserve to thrive, we regret that we are unable to accept embalmed bodies for burial at Sun Rising Natural Burial Ground. Similar policies are held by nearly all natural burial grounds.

The only time where we would bend our rules is where the deceased has been through a postmortem, or repatriation, and preserving chemicals may have necessarily been used. Get in touch with us if you have any queries.