by juni 9 Replies latest jw friends
Has anyone else heard of a funeral memorial talk done on a Sunday evening? Also, this person was not active in field service or a regular mtg. attender. Is this unusual to have a hall memorial service for them?
The deceased's wife is of the "anointed" as of last year... would this have any bearing on the flexibility... Sunday opposed to Saturday?
Juni
I think the actual date of the service has more to do with availability of the KH than it does with tradition.
Maybe they made accomodations for family to be able to attend??
Regarding the 'inactivity' of the deceased, my experience goes way back to the 70's on this one. We had several deaths within a short period of time. 2 men were non-witnesses of respected women in the cong. Both had a history of being opposed to the 'truth' but one of the men ended up having a KH memorial service.
In this case, apparently it was at the discretion of the elder body. The man had recently had a softening of his heart and was a regular BackCall (Return Visit, if not Bible Study) of one of the elders.
So, I don't think there is a traditional, set time. It's all about convenience, availability and who you know...
-Aude.
The day of the week is probably meaningless.
It was probably done as a favor to the anointed wife. I've done that before. Did a funeral for my JW grandmother-in-law's husband, who was a smoker and didn't like the Witnesses much. Also a vet, and I had no problem allowing the local VFW to do a ceremony at the funeral. Obviously, this wasn't at a Kingdom Hall, but that might be allowed for the Witness wife in those circumstances, if the elder body wasn't a bunch of assholes.
S4
Thanks Denise and S4 for your help.
Actually the BOEs are a bunch of a holes, but besides that fact... yeah I believe that special allowances were made for her. She has been an inactive one for many years and had started going back and as I had mentioned this past year became anointed ... and well the rest is history as they say.
Juni
Juni, my Deceased Hubby was an inactive JW. He had just recently retired and was starting to go back. He was in good standing..just work interferred with his meeting and service attendance for years.
His mom and family were also JW's. I disassociated myself in 1975.
When he died (Long story) I asked if they would give him a memorial..he wanted it to be in the country where his Mom was. They said fine.
So Having been so sick he was unable to attend meetings for almost 5 months. I didn't think they would do it. But they did. And our adult children (Raised JW but also left) and their families and I all went and sat in the front row! Which also surprised me.
It was one of the most impersonable funerals I had ever went to.They always preached the day of ones death was more important than the day of their birth..could have fooled me!
Snoozy..
My Mother-in-law wa an "inactive JW" had been for about at least a couple of years. Which was due to an illness which meant that she could not walk any distance without the need for oxygen. When she died the Elders agreed to have the funeral at the Kingdom Hall. Then two days before the funeral they changed their mind and said that the KH could not be used. The family had to rush around to find somewhere to hold the funeral. Eventually it was held in a local community hall. But an Elder still gave the funeral talk. Which hardly mentioned her, but was used to promote JW teaching on death and resurrection, to the non-JW family members.
JW funerals can be held any time of the week,day or night, as long as it doesnt interfere with the meetings.
Since most JW funerals are just infomercials for the borg, they would gladly do someones funeral provided they werent an apostate or an unbelieving opposer, even with the latter, they might still do it out of spite.
"even with the latter, they might still do it out of spite."
What?! You mean if I kick the bucket they would think of doing my funeral? Well, don't that beat all? It really would be over my dead body! ha! Guess I better get more active in my anti witnessing just to protect my loved ones from ever having to sit through that!
Thanks to all of you for your words.
S4 was on target according to your own experiences.
Juni
I have been to funerals where it was the unbelieving mate, and you could hear "worldly" people whipser "if only he knew, he would be rolling over right now."
Carla, if you were to die, at the very least I bet your husband would have an elder do your funeral talk.
