Free Online Ceremonies

The Universal Life Church offers free ceremonies of a wide variety of types, online for your use. Wedding, funeral, baby naming ceremonies and more for your use.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Funeral Poetry

Funeral Prayer #2 From the Ode To Immortality, Stanza IX
William Wordsworth

O joy! that in our embers
Is something that doth live,
That nature yet remembers
What was so fugitive!
The thought of our past years in me doth breed
Perpetual benediction: not indeed
For that which is most worthy to be blest--
Delight and liberty, the simple creed
Of Childhood, whether busy or at rest,
With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast:--
Not for these I raise
The song of thanks and praise;
But for those obstinate questionings
Of sense and outward things,
Fallings from us, vanishings;
Blank misgivings of a Creature
Moving about in worlds not realised,
High instincts before which our mortal Nature
Did tremble like a guilty Thing surprised:
But for those first affections,
Those shadowy recollections,
Which, be they what they may,
Are yet the fountain light of all our day,
Are yet a master light of all our seeing;
Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make
Our noisy years seem moments in the being
Of the eternal Silence: truths that wake,
To perish never;
Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavor,
Nor Man nor Boy,
Nor all that is at enmity with joy,
Can utterly abolish or destroy!
Hence in a season of calm weather
Though inland far we be,
Our Souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither,
Can in a moment travel thither,
And see the Children sport upon the shore,
And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.

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The Universal Life Church offers handfasting ceremonies, funeral ceremonies and ordination to become an ordained minister.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have enjoyed the new article directory for seminary members.
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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Funeral Opening Statement

Opening Statement
Universal Life Church - Online Funeral Ceremony
 
We are joined here on this day to give thanks for the life of ______, whose short stay of ___ years was a joy to us all. 

Death is part of the cycle of life.  Death is required and death is sad.  It tears at our heart when it happens, but without it, there could be nothing new.  No new genes, no species, no new perspectives in the world.  Without death, there could be no more birth.  Death is the price we pay.

Even though it is the price, we struggle against it with all our might.  We guard ourselves and live in resistance to this natural state.  When it does come, such as now, there is for some a question of faith, of the fairness of the world, which eventually gives way to acceptance that death is part of the greater plan for the universe.  This acceptance doesn’t usually come easy or quickly, but when it does, it can strengthen us.  To love life and to trust so completely in the ways of the universe and of God, even in its final act, is fortifying.

We have come here today to celebrate the passage that ________ has made into the greater wholeness, the loving arms of God.


Rev. Amy Long
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The Universal Life Church offers handfasting ceremonies, funeral ceremonies and ordination to become an ordained minister.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have enjoyed the new article directory for seminary members.
Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Friday, June 10, 2011

Funeral Ceremony Sermon

By Carolyn Young
Universal Life Church - Online Funeral Ceremony
Requiem for an Unborn

(set up the sacred space and light a candle for everyone in attendance. Make sure there are plenty of tissues available.)

Many of us know the pain of losing a child. And if we are fortunate to have not known, as women we can still empathize and grieve. A life stopped before it was started can more distressing than other any deaths. Body and spirit stiffen against sorrow, but to aid the release of the grief of those who mourn, we must let our own awareness flow free.

We gather tonight to say good-bye to _______, a child-but not a child; truly "real" to but one among us. Whether the one we mourn was beloved or a stranger, we have the right and the need to grieve because her fate is our own.

She has left behind empty arms, not just her parents', but all who would have cherished her and nurtured her and assisted her in becoming a woman. We hope she accomplished what she had set for herself.

(Let everyone tell what they would have liked to have done with _______. When each person is finished speaking they blow out their candle and wish Godspeed to the soul.)

I would like to have taken her for walks in the woods and shown her the wonders there . . . and let her show me the wonders of God's creations through a child's eyes again.

(When all are finished ground the energies and open the space.)

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The Universal Life Church offers handfasting ceremonies, funeral ceremonies and ordination to become an ordained minister.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have enjoyed the new article directory for seminary members.
Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar