Legacy Matters

Only 50% of funerals led by clery

From Get Religion A Special Place in the Ground

Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA Today’s longtime religion reporter, had an interesting story recently about the growing number of Americans who are opting out of clergy-led funeral services. It’s not clear what kind of growth in the secular death business we’re talking about — it appears cold, hard numbers aren’t available — but Grossman writes that times have really changed:

“What we’ve found in the past decade is that when you ask people whether they want a minister, people say, ‘Not interested,’ ” says William McQueen, president of his family’s longtime business.

“Today, of all the ceremonies we deal with, I’d say 50% are religious or clergy-led, 20% celebrant-led and 30% are having no ceremony or one led by family,” says McQueen, who becomes president of the Cremation Association of North America at the group’s annual meeting this week in Denver.

Religious funerals were the only available option 25 years ago,  “even if nobody showed up,” McQueen says.

John Reed Sr., president of the National Funeral Directors Association, says 50% of Americans today say they don’t belong to a church and don’t see value in a religious funeral. But “they still want ceremony and celebration at the end of life.”