Priest recommmending funeral directors - is he on commission?

[maartjebaabes]

Ive recently been bereaved, and i'm arranging a service here, where she now lived and died, and a funeral 300 miles away where her family live and she will be buried.

I'm using a great local funeral company here, and the family have made their choice there.

But the priest there has contacted the local company here, and has rung me at 9.30, to 'recommend' a local company who will do it much cheaper.

So i have the choice of saving £1000 (which is not really a lot in the grand scheme of things) and piffing oss her family for the rest of their life, or not. A pretty easy one - even if you believed it.

I want to know, is this normal? It's not the most outrageous behaviour from a priest i've ever heard, but wtf - is he on commission?

I am so sorry for your loss.
I am in the US so maybe not much help, but our priest did tell us the two funeral homes that he usually has contact with, at our request. As far as I know, there isn't a commission.
I hope the planning goes smoothly. It can be such a difficult process to deal with when you are bereaved.

I'm sorry for your loss.

I work in a church office. If he is a currently in post priest, he will get £0 for taking a funeral, it's considered to be part of the job. Retired clergy are paid. It doesn't make a difference to the cost to the estate because in the case of a non retired clergy, the money goes to the diocese (their employer).

Given the distance, I think this is unlikely, but it may be that he knows the company at your end to be unreliable. I know locally to us there are a few funeral companies who I don't like dealing with. Or could it be that he's met with her family and come away with the impression that money is an issue?
Either way, I wouldn't describe it as normal, no, it is weirdly overstepping.