Funeral delays

[Georgyporky]

I've arranged & also attended many funerals over the years, & one thing has always puzzled me.
Any form of Christian , Agnostic or Atheist funeral takes weeks from death to ceremony. (Nothing to do with Covid.)

Why?

Jewish & Muslim funerals happen very quickly after death, so what is stopping other funerals from taking place earlier?
Presumably the paperwork in GB is the same for everyone?

My Dad’s funeral was 11 days after he died 11 months ago. That gap felt right for our family.

Does anyone know whether putting in the will a wish to be buried say in days rather than weeks would be honoured

I shouldn't think so, if the time taken is down to the crematorium being booked there won't be a way round that just to honour a request, or everyone would do it

Any form of Christian , Agnostic or Atheist funeral takes weeks from death to ceremony

Not necessarily as I.said upthread my Dad's funeral was 6 days after he died. Christian service conducted by our minister and at the local crematorium

9-5 & a half-day on Saturday.

And what would you suggest instead? 44 hours a week isn’t sufficient? You want night time funerals? I don’t understand.

Where I am I fairly regularly take funerals about a week after death. However often the family want a longer gap as they prefer to find a date that all family can easily attend (often a friday if its going to be a big funeral). It is easier to have a bigger gap so I can meet the family properly beforehand and we can take time to plan the service that people really want. I often find that with a longer gap that people find it easier to share stories for the tribute for example.
However I am now living in a rural area. When I was a vicar in a town there were often long waits for tbe crematorium for example which I haven't experienced here. I also now have my own churchyards rather than council owned ones so again can be more flexible.

Mil's funeral took 10 days, that was the earliest we could get booked into the crematorium at a reasonable time. We could have had a 9am slot sooner but that didn't really suit us all travelling quite a distance to get there. Everything else could have been organised sooner. We were originally told a 2-3 week wait.

I dont know if a Muslim or Jewish family would have been allowed to jump the queue at the crematorium if that's what the op was about.

Sometimes it’s due to the lack of a priest, if Catholic. We wanted a funeral with a requiem mass for my dad, but had to wait for the priest to be available. When I was a kid each parish had two or sometimes even three priests, but due to a shortage of priests and drop in attendance, nowadays one priest may cover two churches, be a school chaplain, and do things like minister to the sick in his parish too. I did read that only around 12 new catholic priests are ordained each year in the uk, so others have to be brought in from Africa and South America.