2018: The Co-operative Funeral Services list of Top Ten Funeral Songs (now containing no Christian songs or hymns). I'm looking at the merits and demerits of the top ten, and number 9 - We'll meet again, sung by Vera Lynn:
It sounds hopeful.
Dying is not much like going off to war (the song dates from 1939 and the hope of sunnier, post-war times down the track). Over 99% of UK military personnel outlived the Second World War. The percentage for general death survival hovers around 0%. (Though at the time of writing Vera Lynn is closer to cheating this statistic than most of us - she's aged 102!)
We'll meet again
Don't know where
Seeing a severely disabled five-year-old smile, or his parents laugh, reminds me that giving up isn’t worth it — persistence can be so rewarding.
I wasn't alive in World War 2.
Why it's good for a funeral:
It sounds hopeful.
Why it's bad for a funeral:
Dying is not much like going off to war (the song dates from 1939 and the hope of sunnier, post-war times down the track). Over 99% of UK military personnel outlived the Second World War. The percentage for general death survival hovers around 0%. (Though at the time of writing Vera Lynn is closer to cheating this statistic than most of us - she's aged 102!)
Line that's most like a Christian song:
We'll meet again
Line that's least like a Christian song:
Don't know where
A Quote from (performer) Vera Lynn:
Seeing a severely disabled five-year-old smile, or his parents laugh, reminds me that giving up isn’t worth it — persistence can be so rewarding.
Why I don't want this song at my funeral:
I wasn't alive in World War 2.
A better Christian alternative:
.
[Ten Thousand times Ten Thousand . . .]
O then what raptured greetings
On Canaan's happy shore.
What knitting severed friendships up
Where partings are no more!
Then eyes with joy shall sparkle
That brimmed with tears of late;
Orphans no longer fatherless
Nor widows desolate.
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