The Pensive Pilgrim

In the 1970s, the progressive rock/folk group 'Magna Carta', led by my friend Chris Simpson, produced the album 'Lord of the Ages', which included the song 'Father John', which Chris said was based on an anonymous priest friend of his. It was a rather haunting, melancholic number, and here are the lyrics:    Slowly steals the dawn in a grey December way Tired night has closed her eyes to say "Oh let all the world be light Each darkened room till I return" Father John wakes early Dons a faded robe, breathes a prayer Then hurries where the air is cold It's Sunday come round again Maybe one face more or less in church today Oh can't you see, Father John? Oh can't you see, Father John? Miss Pringle and Miss Prendergast And George who does the brass are there To say the words they've said for twenty years And no one knows or cares Safe in the security of things they see and want to be Believing is a word for growing old Oh can't you see,...

Advent will soon be upon us, and there is a tradition that over the four Sundays of this season,  preachers turn their attention to the 'Four Last Things' - Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell.  Whether by design or coincidence, today's edition of The Church Times carries a feature headed "The British turn their backs on funerals" which clearly links with the first of these 'last things'.   It seems that in a recent survey commissioned by the think tank Theos, only 47% of respondents said that they would like a funeral,  24% said that they definitely didn't want a funeral while 28% were undecided.  So far as I'm aware, the survey didn't ask the participants how they felt about being asked these questions in the first place, but I suspect a very large percentage would say that they would have preferred not to have to think about such things. If the British are indeed turning their backs on funerals, I suspect it's because in reality they'r...