The Interfaith Seminary   News

 

When Olive Archer, was buried in Swindon on 14 January 2008 at a funeral taken by interfaith minister Rev Akasha Lonsdale, there were eight relatives at the ceremony,  including nephews and nieces she hadn't seen for years, and a dozen or so long-lost friends.

 

Yet in the week before Christmas, when Olive Archer died at the age of 83, it seemed she would have no-one at her funeral.  She had spent much of her life looking after her invalided mother, and lived her last five years in a care home, without a single visitor. Staff had no record of any relatives or friends.

 

When Akasha was asked by the funeral director to take the service, she was moved by a mighty resolve – to find the missing people from Olive's life so they could have the chance to pay their respects at her funeral. She approached a local paper, the Swindon Advertiser, hoping they would run a few lines.

 

Within days Akasha was at the centre of an amazing outpouring of interest that truly showed the power of Love in action. She was asked to do local radio interviews, then appeared in most of the national newspapers, and did a live lunchtime interview on the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2.

 

Akasha had obtained a photo from the care home of Olive as a young woman – 'with film star looks' as the papers said. The Daily Mail (4 Jan) gave most of page 7 to the story. Eleanor Rigby, 2008 ran the headline, and talked of 'a poignant echo of the Beatles song.'

 

The papers and broadcasts all mentioned Akasha's phone number, with the result that she received literally hundreds of calls, mainly from people who didn't know Olive, but were moved by her story and wanted to pay their respects at the funeral. It looked like the ceremony would attract a large number of people.

 

Then there was another twist. Word reached some relatives, who got in touch. It was their wish that Olive Archer be buried rather than cremated, and that the funeral service be a private ceremony. For a time it seemed they might want a religious minister to take the service instead, but they requested Akasha to go ahead.

 

It fell to her to contact everyone who had been in touch about Olive but hadn't known her personally, to ask them not to come to the ceremony. She also had to ask the press to respect the privacy of the relatives – which they did – and to turn down ITV's News at Ten, which had wanted an exclusive of the funeral on its relaunch edition.

 

How did Akasha stay centered amid all the excitement? 'The only way I could do it was by staying with the original prompt, which was from Love, and following my heart,' she says. 'It was a terrific lesson.'

 

 

 

 

Summer is the busiest time of year for weddings, and summer of 2007 was a record year for weddings celebrated by interfaith ministers. Perhaps the peak was the last weekend in August, when there were at least four.

 

On Saturday 25^th August, Rev Martin Nathanael married an Indian Muslim man and an American Catholic woman before a large congregation at The Waldorf Hotel in London. The ceremony included an Indian Muslim tradition in which bridesmaids and groomsmen distributed eight trays of almonds and date-cakes to the guests. An imam from Syria also led a traditional Islamic Nikah vow-taking ceremony in English and Arabic.

 

Next day, Rev Freya Kennedy officiated at a big wedding for a London couple at a farm/conference centre in Hertfordshire. The bride was an events organiser and the groom a part-time DJ.  First the couple had a small ceremony with the registrar (in the barn), then there was a procession heralded by trumpeters out onto the lawn, where Freya led a traditional ceremony, but only after a friend of the bride had performed an acoustic version of Moon River.

 

Also on Sunday 26^th, Rev Kate Atchley married a local couple in Wanlockhead, the highest village in Scotland. This was the most unusual venue of the day. Bride and groom stood for the ceremony on an island of flat stones in the middle of a burn running through the centre of the village, with their minister beside them and some 100 guests and neighbours lined up on the grassy banks. The service was inspired by the Celtic and Earth traditions, with a handfasting at its centre.

 

Rev Shirley Crichton also held a handfasting ceremony on the same day, in a marquee with 200 guests at the Irish Centre in Milton Keynes. The highlight was when the young couple received blessings from their parents, who each tied a ribbon while giving their personal blessing – “very moving” said Shirley, whose first wedding this was.