Travelling in style

The Revd Ian Morris is the author of "The Motorcycle Hearse and Other Undertakings" a book about funerals which should be high on the reading priority list of all contemporary with-it clergyman. Mr Morris, a former chaplain at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge is clearly a priest who wishes his ministry to be relevant to today's people. He writes "People need permission to laugh and weep at funerals instead of the default position being sombre and serious. If there is anything that we can do to take away people's fear of death, then let's do it. A firework display or a motorcycle hearse might be exactly the right thing."

Later this month, at the very popular Christian Resources Exhibition, there will be a "Return to Sender" section which will feature the Rev Paul Sinclair, a Derbyshire Pentecostal minister, and his "Motorcycle Funerals" organisation. He can supply sidecar hearses to replace the more traditional vehicle. "Why should people who love bikes be last seen in an automobile?" he asks.

The suggestion of funeral fireworks is not simply an attempt to brighten up an otherwise gloomy procedure but a method of dispatching the ashes of the deceased into the heavens above. Thirty six such funerals have already taken place in Britain, costing between £900 and £1800 each. The professional organiser responsible tells us "people cry tears of joy at the end of our firework displays".

Then there is Vidstone. Why settle for a granite headstone when you can have one designed as a solar powered screen which shows pictures of the deceased set to music ? "Helping people to retain happy memories helps them to have closure" says the chief executive officer of this compassionate company.

On the other hand you may still want to settle for a truly Christian funeral in the context of a Requiem Mass.

The purpose of life - "to know God and enjoy him for ever"!