A Gloucestershire vicar, Geoff Stickland, has banned pop songs at funerals after blaming the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, for increasing numbers of mourners requesting music such as “My Way” and “Grandad”.
Oh no, here we go again! This report in the Telegraph follows hot on the heels of Father Tomlinson’s comments recently on funerals, comments like:-
“I have stood at the crem like a lemon, wondering why on earth I am present at the funeral of somebody led in by the tunes of Tina Turner, summed up in pithy platitudes of sentimental and secular poets and sent into the furnace with ‘I Did It My Way’ blaring out across the speakers!”
Fr Tomlinson went on to question the quality of funeral for non-believers, commenting that while Christians still had the liturgy of the requiem mass to look forward to, the best secularists could hope for was “a poem from nan combined with a saccharine message from a pop star before being popped in the oven with no hope of resurrection”.
Classic stuff and I personally love the honesty and frankly it’s all true! I wonder if the new comments from Geoff Stickland will create the same degree of media frenzy and controversy as Father Tomlinson’s comments above (poor fellow had the paparazzi camped outside his home)? Folks really took exception to Tomlinson’s comments, especially about Nana’s poems 
. I went to a funeral once of an local elderly chap (Knobby) and Frank Sinatra’s ‘I did it my way’ was pumped out as he was ‘popped in the oven’.
From a Christian perspective, non-Christians couldn’t pick a more apt song, in other words, you did it your way, rather than God’s way and so you will spend eternity ‘doing it your way’ separated from God, which is what you opted for in this life, namely, existence without God. Brutal, but true.
Here is some of the article from the Telgraph by By Andrew Hough
The 68-year-old, from the St James Church, in Quedgeley, Gloucs, blamed the practice on the “outpouring of unbelievable emotion” at the Princesses’ funeral in 1997.
He said said modern culture then changed in such way he found “incredibly hard to accept” where mourners thought it normal to play pop music at funerals.
[....]
Speaking in support of Mr Tomlinson, Mr Stickland said it was “not right” to play of pop songs at funerals and has since banned the practice at his parish.
“It all seems to date back to Princess Diana’s death, when there was an outpouring of unbelievable emotion,” he said.
“The utter devotion was impressive, but since then it has all changed.
“We have changed to a culture that I find incredibly hard to accept.”
He added: “I am 68, have been a priest for 44 years, and do not want to change.
“To stand at the door of the church and hear Frank Sinatra singing My Way as the coffin is carried in, and then to hear Grandad playing as they file out is not right.”
While he had “a great deal sympathy” for mourners, Mr Stickland, who has been at the parish since 1982, admitted the new culture did not “agree with mine”.
He said the people living in Victoria times had an “immense conviction in the promise of eternal life” and when there was a funeral there was a “promise of Heaven for the deceased”.
“Now, without that theology any more, people have to look back and pick personal moments, it is all just incredibly emotional,” he said.
He said while his parishioners were “decent people, hard working and trying to make a good life for themselves”, not all were religious.
“Despite that, when any momentous event happens in their lives, such as a funeral, they want us to perform in their culture,” he said
“I have a great deal of sympathy with those dealing with a bereavement, but this is now a theological issue.”
I can already imagine the fallout from these comments 
Oh and Princess Diana’s death and consequent media coverage and national outpouring of ‘grief’ was the height of hypocrisy. the media had spent years slating her and then all of a sudden she was the nations saint. It was a dangerous pursuit to point this out at the time of her death, for fear of being lynched. A prime and scary example of the media informing folk how they should feel and act.
The below link is an excellent article written by John Piper, which speaks on the issue of ‘choossing hell’ and ‘rejecting God’. Well worth a read:-
How Willingly Do People Go to Hell? Does Anyone Standing by the Lake of Fire Jump In?
FURTHER INTERNET LINK
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