Memorials & Funerals
As a nondenominational church, we welcome people from all paths of life. For those who are currently without a church "home" or if you prefer that your loved one be honored in a nonreligious manner, we will work with you in whatever way you are comfortable. We are willing to perform services with a tone that is religious, nonreligious, or spiritual--while still capturing the essence of the person being remembered.
One of the most challenging aspects of life is when it ends, and yet endings and beginnings are equally important in the natural order. Birth and death are bookends. What is important is what has comes between these two place markers. All lives, great or seemingly ordinary, deserve to be honored and remembered, not only for the benefit of the deceased, but especially for the loved ones that are left behind.
While no one knows for certain what happens after this life ends, there are many different beliefs across all cultures and traditions. All faiths and beliefs are worthy of respect, including even the lack of a belief. It is most important to pay tribute to the deceased in ways that are befitting of how they lived their life. We are all unique. A eulogy should capture the essence of the person who lived, and provide more than just the chronology of their life. During a consultation with the family, many questions can be answered, such as:
What meant the most to him?
What are the things she loved to do?
What were his greatest achievements?
What was important to the individual being honored?
Even the small things, such as her favorite color, song, or movie?
Together these form the fabric of the life our loved one has lived, the tapestry of life that is formed by words, feelings, thoughts, and deeds, and his or her interrelationships with others. The celebration of one's life is a beautiful way to bring comfort and closure to loved ones.
Readings Appropriate for Memorials and Funerals
Remember Me
Author Unknown
To the living, I am gone.
To the sorrowful, I will never return.
To the angry, I was cheated.
But to the happy, I am at peace,
And to the faithful, I have never left.
I cannot be seen, but I can be heard.
So as you stand upon a shore, gazing at a beautiful sea - remember me.
As you look in awe at a mighty forest and its grand majesty - remember me.
As you look upon a flower and admire its simplicity - remember me.
Remember me in your heart, your thoughts,
and your memories of the times we loved,
the times we cried, the times we fought, the times we laughed.
For if you always think of me, I will have never gone.
The Ship
By Henry Jackson VanDyke
I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength
and I stand and watch her until at length
she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea
and the sky meet and mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says,
'there, She’s gone'
Gone where?
Gone from my sight, that is all.
She is just as large in mast and spar and hull
as ever she was when she left my side;
just as able to bear her load of living freight
to the place of her destination.
The diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment someone at my side says,
'There, she’s gone' there are other eyes watching her coming
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout.
'Here she comes'
Do Not Stand By My Grave and Weep
By Mary Elizabeth Frye
Do not stand on my grave and weep;
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond's glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn's rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. Look to the sky.
Death is Nothing At All
Canon Henry Scott-Holland
Death is nothing at all…
I have only slipped away into the next room,
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no differences into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me.
Let my name be ever the household name that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effort,
without the ghost of a shadow on it.
Life means all that is ever meant.
It is the same as it always was.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
What is this death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you for an interval somewhere very near…
just around the corner All is well.
To Live in Hearts We Leave Behind Is Not To Die
Author Unknown
Remember me on quiet days,
While rain drops whisper on your pane.
But in your memories have no grief.
Let just the joy we knew remain.
Remember me when evening stars
Smile down on you with quiet eyes.
Remember me if once you awake
To catch a glimpse of red sunrise.
Remember me when spring walks by.
Think once of me when you are glad.
When you are happy, so am I.
And when your thoughts do turn to me,
Know that I would not have you cry.
But live for me and laugh for me,
And while you live,
I shall not die.
Fruits of Solitude
by William Penn
They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it.
Death cannot kill what never dies.
Nor can spirits ever be divided that love and live in the same
divine principle: the root and record of their friendship.
If absence be not death, neither is theirs.
Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the sea;
...they live for one another still.
This is the comfort of friends: that though they may be said to die,
yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense immortal,
because they are ever present.
Author Unknown
To the living, I am gone.
To the sorrowful, I will never return.
To the angry, I was cheated.
But to the happy, I am at peace,
And to the faithful, I have never left.
I cannot be seen, but I can be heard.
So as you stand upon a shore, gazing at a beautiful sea - remember me.
As you look in awe at a mighty forest and its grand majesty - remember me.
As you look upon a flower and admire its simplicity - remember me.
Remember me in your heart, your thoughts,
and your memories of the times we loved,
the times we cried, the times we fought, the times we laughed.
For if you always think of me, I will have never gone.
The Ship
By Henry Jackson VanDyke
I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength
and I stand and watch her until at length
she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea
and the sky meet and mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says,
'there, She’s gone'
Gone where?
Gone from my sight, that is all.
She is just as large in mast and spar and hull
as ever she was when she left my side;
just as able to bear her load of living freight
to the place of her destination.
The diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment someone at my side says,
'There, she’s gone' there are other eyes watching her coming
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout.
'Here she comes'
Do Not Stand By My Grave and Weep
By Mary Elizabeth Frye
Do not stand on my grave and weep;
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond's glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn's rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. Look to the sky.
Death is Nothing At All
Canon Henry Scott-Holland
Death is nothing at all…
I have only slipped away into the next room,
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no differences into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me.
Let my name be ever the household name that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effort,
without the ghost of a shadow on it.
Life means all that is ever meant.
It is the same as it always was.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
What is this death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you for an interval somewhere very near…
just around the corner All is well.
To Live in Hearts We Leave Behind Is Not To Die
Author Unknown
Remember me on quiet days,
While rain drops whisper on your pane.
But in your memories have no grief.
Let just the joy we knew remain.
Remember me when evening stars
Smile down on you with quiet eyes.
Remember me if once you awake
To catch a glimpse of red sunrise.
Remember me when spring walks by.
Think once of me when you are glad.
When you are happy, so am I.
And when your thoughts do turn to me,
Know that I would not have you cry.
But live for me and laugh for me,
And while you live,
I shall not die.
Fruits of Solitude
by William Penn
They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it.
Death cannot kill what never dies.
Nor can spirits ever be divided that love and live in the same
divine principle: the root and record of their friendship.
If absence be not death, neither is theirs.
Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the sea;
...they live for one another still.
This is the comfort of friends: that though they may be said to die,
yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense immortal,
because they are ever present.
CIRCLE OF LIGHT MINISTRIES, L.L.C.
9860 S.W. Hall Blvd., Suite C-4, Ash Creek Cedars Bldg. Portland, Oregon 97223 503-628-8518