Your Beliefs are very important to you, and therefore to us, at George John we recognise this and are more than happy to provide you with a Funeral Service that is Tailored to those Beliefs. Please see below a selection of Beliefs that we have catered for historically, if you can't see yours amongst them please feel free to ask us.
Christian:- We have a lot of experience with Christian funerals of every denomination, including, Catholic, High Church, Church of England, Baptist, Methodist, Seventh-Day Adventist, Quakers, Pentecostal, Chinese, and Orthodox.
We can organize, reception into church to taking the deceased home, for burials and cremations. If you wish to have a religious funeral but not have the service in church, we can liaise with the minister of your choice to meet us directly at the chosen service chapel whether that be at a local crematorium or at the graveside.
We have a good working relationship with all local ministers, we also recommend Civil Celebrants, for people of a Christian faith but who do not want an overly religious service. These types of service allow for prayers and hymns but are more centered on the deceased’s life.
We are accustomed to different cultures, for example, on Chinese burials we know that the family must turn away from the grave as the deceased is lowered into their final resting place.
Non-Religious:- For our non-religious funerals, we usually suggest using a civil celebrant or humanist minister to take the service.
They will discuss with yourselves exactly what you would like for your loved one’s funeral.
They usually replace the religious committal with a returning your loved one to the earth /elements. A lot of the non-religious funerals we organise, the family actually wish to take the service themselves. We offer our help free of charge to organise, or even take the funeral with the family. We can explain how to use the music system at which ever crematorium or chapel we are at.
Sikh and Hindu Funerals:- We are proud we are able to offer these services, that we carried out many such funerals over the years, there are not many funeral companies specifically available for theses beliefs. A few temples in the Birmingham area recommend us to families because even though we are not of the same beliefs, we respect and carry out the funerals just as the families would want.
We offer wash and dress facilities, which we can assist with if required, which is usually followed by family viewing in our chapel of rest, (incense and statues of gods supplied). We can take the deceased home for the priest to visit and perform rituals on the day of the funeral. After this we will take the family to the chosen crematorium and then onto the temple or home address afterward.
We know all aspects of the rituals that take place at home and can do these for the family if they do not wish to have a priest. We have a wide range of contacts at the temples and deal with priests directly which we can appoint to take your loved one’s funeral if required. We are happy to take off our shoes when entering the holy space in which the deceased will be placed during the funeral. We are also happy to ware any head coverings required. We ensure that the coffin touches the ground as we leave the house and as we come out of the hearse at the crematorium. If we have a clay pot at the house we will walk with the family member chosen to smash on the side of the road as we leave.
If family members wish to press the button for the coffin to be lowered or curtains to close we can organise this. We can also organise witnessing your loved one been put into the cremator (COVID 19 RULES CAN RESTRICT THIS). We are happy to store loved ones ashes for a long period of time to ensure you can collect or we can deliver on the day of travel. Water urns can be provided.
Our funeral director George is very familiar with the Hindu faith in particular with greeting family members with Jaishree Krishna, and joining the family witnessing their loved on going into the cremator. He will join in the service where he can often singing to Shaanti Paatha. He will line up to greet the family as offerings are made outside the crematorium.
Eco Funerals:- With eco funerals we can go as eco as you would like it. We often do eco burials, at eco friendly burial sites that do not allow headstones but supply you with a memorial tree instead. We can just supply an eco coffin if it suits for cremation and burials. Please enquire and let us know exactly what type of Eco funeral you are looking for, and we will ensure that we make it as green and eco as you would like.
Societies, groups, memberships and military send offs:- . We conduct funerals for people who are members of many different groups such as, The Masonic Order, The Round Table, Part of a Regiment, Police Force, Fire Service, NHS Workers, St John Ambulance Service, Sporting Clubs, Themes, a band and The Buffalo’s.
For Military funerals we can provide, standard bearers, a union jack to cover the coffin, if a regimental flag is not supplied, and a bugler to perform the last post and reveille. Having carried out Police funerals we are used to police escorts and having a police pall and hat to place on your loved ones coffin.