More forgo clergy-led funerals for those by secular 'celebrants'

By CATHY LYNN GROSSMAN - USA TODAY
Added: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 23:00:00 UTC

Thanks to Adam for the link.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-08-19-non-religious-funerals_N.htm

When Kenneth Kistner, 85, died in February, his wife, Carmen, didn't call any clergy.

At the Detroit memorial service for the Marine veteran and retired educator, Kistner's family read a eulogy — one that Kistner himself approved years earlier, when it was drafted by a secular "celebrant" near their retirement home in Largo, Fla.

A growing number of people want to celebrate a loved one's life at a funeral or memorial service without clergy — sometimes even without God.

And that's giving rise to the new specialty of pastoral-style secular celebrants who deliver unique personalized eulogies without the rituals of institutional religion.
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-08-19-non-religious-funerals_N.htm

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