Can I ask for some help with a funeral prayer?

[Backhills]

I expect this will sound all mixed up, but I'd really appreciate some help.

We have to plan DH's funeral. He was always very secular, even anti religion. He believed most of the conflict in the world was caused by religion and didn't want anything to do with it.

I was raised with Sunday School, but haven't taken religion literally for years. However, I do still have some faith, say a prayer of thanks everyday and pray for strength in times of adversity.

We've said no religion at DH's funeral and I'm broadly happy with that, but the only completely secular funeral I've been to was fine, except that it felt very odd to send the body off without any prayer or blessing. I feel like we need "something" for as the coffin goes behind the curtains. Something to wish him a good journey wherever he's going, but not too gushy or Godly iyswim.

I've tried Google for ideas. Everything is about sending him to God, as you'd expect, but that's not what he believed.

Apologies if this offends, I do appreciate faith isn't supposed to be luke warm, but can anyone help?

My condolences on your loss

My Dad was the same in that he didn't want a religious funeral in any way. We had the poem'The Sailing Ship' as the curtains closed, which was particularly meaningful as he loved the tall ships.

I was going to suggest the sailing ship too.

There are a few suggestions for “non religious commital wording” online, do any of those suit your needs?

www.roxanne-angelique.co.uk/2020/01/16/example-committalfarewell-wording-for-funerals/

Home is the sailor, home from sea, and the hunter home from the hill. (Part of a lovely spiritual poem by Robert Louis Stevenson I believe). Perhaps you might like to have it as a reading?

Thank you, I shall have a look at those.

Personally, I would just thank God for all your husband was as a person. His family, interests, strengths etc.

I also love the ship image.

This is the version we used at my aunt's funeral. I love it.

Untitled
A funeral poem by Bishop Brent, using the metaphor of a ship sailing over the horizon to describe passing from this life to the next.

Untitled
I am standing on the sea shore.
A Ship sails and spreads her white sails to the morning breeze
And starts for the ocean.

She is an object of beauty
And I stand watching her till at last
She fades on the horizon,
And someone at my side says,
"She is gone."
Gone where?
Gone from my sight,
That is all.

She is just as large in the masts, hull and spars
As she was when I saw her,
And just as able to bear her load of living freight
To its destination.

The diminished size and total loss of sight
Is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment
When someone at my side says, "She is gone,"
There are others who are watching her coming,
And other voices take up a glad shout,
"There she comes,"
And that is dying.

That is beautiful

INSTRUCTIONS
When I have moved beyond you in the adventure of life,
Gather in some pleasant place and there remember me
With spoken words, old and new.
Let a tear if you will, but let a smile come quickly
For I have loved the laughter of life.
Do not linger too long with your solemnities.
Go eat and talk, and when you can;
Follow a woodland trail, climb a high mountain,
Walk along the wild seashore,
Chew the thoughts of some book
Which challenges your soul.
Use your hands some bright day
To make a thing of beauty
Or to lift someone’s heavy load.
Though you mention not my name,
Though no thought of me crosses your mind,
I shall be with you,
For these have been the realities of my life for me.

And when you face some crisis with anguish.
When you walk alone with courage,
When you choose your path of right,
I shall be very close to you.
I have followed the valleys,
I have climbed the heights of life.

Arnold Crompton

This is a great reading/prayer that treads the boundary between secular and non-secular.

Some ideas here-

humanism.org.uk/ceremonies/funerals/blog/uplifting-and-humorous-poems-for-a-humanist-funeral/