FUNERAL AND COMMITTALin thanksgiving for the grace of God in the life of

PENELOPE ECKERSLEY5 December 1920 – 20 January 2010

“It is not light which can blind us but the splendour of your darkness” R S Thomas

St Mark’s Church Hadlow Down Saturday 30 January 2010 at noon

enelope left instructions that her funeral was to be ‘short and simple’. She requested a biodegradable coffin, wanted to be

buried with her late husband Tim and that at the words ‘of resurrection’ at the graveside, “all grand and great grandchildren able to be present release gas filled balloons of all colours into the Sussex sky with shouts of joy and clapping”. She also left instructions ‘for a good wake, afterwards’.

Her wishes have been followed.

The service begins with this prayer, said by the priest from the West End of the Church. Please remain seated.

Almighty and merciful God, we give you thanks for the life of your child Penelope; and we pray that, preserving the good of her example among us, you will guard your truth from generation to generation; through Christ our Lord. Amen

Please stand. The coffin is brought into the church, during which the priest says the following sentences

I heard a voice from heaven, saying, ‘Write this: “Happy are the dead who die in the faith of Christ! Henceforth”, says the Spirit, “they may rest from their labours; for they take with them the record of their deeds.” Revelation 14.13

'I am the resurrection and the life,' says the Lord. 'Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.' John 11.25,26

I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8.38,39

THE WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONWe meet in the name God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Grace and peace be with you. And also with you.

We have come here today to remember before God our sister Penelope; to give thanks for her life and all she has meant to us; to commend her to God’s merciful care and to commit her body to the earth.

Let us pray (saying together)God our Comforter,you are a refuge and a strength for us,a helper close at hand in times of distress.Help us so to hear the words of our faith, that our fear is dispelled,our loneliness eased

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and our hope reawakened.May your Holy Spirit lift us above our natural sorrow, to the peace and light of your constant love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

The priest saysMerciful God, we thank you that you have made each of us in your own image,and given us gifts and talents with which to honour you. We thank you for our beloved sister Penelope, the years we shared with her, the good we saw in her, the love we received from her. Now give us the strength to leave her in your care, confident in your promises made known to us through Jesus Christ. Amen

Hymn (tune St Clement)The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended,The darkness falls at thy behest;To thee our morning hymns ascended,Thy praise shall sanctify our rest.

We thank thee that thy Church unsleeping,While earth rolls onward into light,Through all the world her watch is keeping,And rests not now by day or night.

As o'er each continent and islandThe dawn leads on another day,The voice of prayer is never silent,Nor dies the strain of praise away.

The sun that bids us rest is wakingOur brethren 'neath the western sky,And hour by hour fresh lips are makingThy wondrous doings heard on high.

Readings (sit) From the Book of Revelation (21: 1-7) Read by Tobias Eckersley

Please standA reading of the Holy Gospel (St John 11:17-27)After the Gospel: This is the Gospel of the Lord.Response Praise to you, O Christ.

Music performed on guitar by Benjamin Eckersley

Jade Kentish Barnes reads a message from Cosmo, Penelope’s grandson.

Recollections of PenelopeTimothy Eckersley (after which silence is kept)

Penelope at Bardsey Island

PrayersThe response to Lord, in your mercy is Hear Our Prayer

Hymn (tune Luckington)Let all the world in every corner sing,

my God and King!The heavens are not too high,

his praise may thither fly,the earth is not too low, his praises there

may grow.Let all the world in every corner sing,

my God and King!

Let all the world in every corner sing, my God and King!

The church with psalms must shout, no door can keep them out;

but, above all, the heart must bear the longest part.

Let all the world in every corner sing, my God and King!

COMMENDATION AND FAREWELL The bold text is said by all (please remain standing)

Give rest, O Christ, to your servant with your saints: where sorrow and pain are no more; neither sighing, but life everlasting. You alone are immortal, our creator and maker; and we are mortal, formed of the earth, and to the earth we shall return; for you so ordained when you created us, saying ‘Dust you are, and to dust you shall return’; we shall all go down to the dust, and weeping over the grave, sing alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. Give rest, O Christ, to your servant with your saints: where sorrow and pain are no more; neither sighing, but life everlasting.

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Into your hands, O Lord, our faithful creator and most loving God, we commend your child Penelope. For she is yours in death as in life. In your great mercy fulfil in her the purpose of your love; gather her to yourself in gentleness and peace, that, rejoicing in the light of your presence, she may enjoy that rest which you have prepared for all your faithful servants; through Christ our Lord. Amen

Go forth upon your journey from this world, O Christian soul; in the name of God the Father Almighty who created you; in the name of Jesus Christ who suffered death for you; in the name of the Holy Spirit, who strengthens you; in communion with the blessed saints, aided by angels and archangels and all the heavenly host. May you dwell this day in peace. Amen

All sayPenelope, as God freely gave you to us, so we freely let you go. We thank you, O God, for all her life,for every memory of love and joy,and for every good deed done by her. And with our love we continue to surround her. Amen

As the coffin begins its journey to the graveside, we sing this hymn as we accompany it out of the church. (Tune Nan Danket)

Now thank we all our God,with hearts and hands and voices,who wondrous things hath done,in whom this world rejoices;who from our mothers' armshath blest us on our waywith countless gifts of love,and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous Godthrough all our life be near us,with ever joyful heartsand blessed peace to cheer us;and keep us in God’s grace,and guide us when perplexed,and free us from all illsin this world and the next.

All praise and thanks to GodOur Maker, now be given,the Son, and Holy Ghost,

one Lord in highest heaven:the one eternal God,whom earth and heaven adore;for thus it was, is now,and shall be evermore.

THE COMMITTAL The Lord be with you. And also with you.

A blessing is said over the graveO God, whose Son Jesus Christ was laid in a tomb: bless, we pray, this grave, where the mortal remains of Tim and Penelope may rest in peace. Amen.

Nunc Dimittis (The Song of Simeon Luke 2.29-32) Now, Lord, you let your servant go in peace: your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people; A light to reveal you to the nationsand the glory of your people Israel. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning is now and shall be for ever. Amen.

The following prayer was attached by Penelope to notes concerning her funeral arrangements. It is attributed to Walter Rauschenbusch.

O God, we thank Thee for this universe, our great home; for its vastness and its riches, and for the manifoldness of the life which teems upon it and of which we are part.

We praise Thee for the arching sky and the blessed winds, for the driving clouds and the constellations on high.

We praise Thee for the salt sea and the running water, for the everlasting hills, for the trees, and for the grass under our feet.

We thank Thee for our senses by which we can see the splendour of the morning, and hear the jubilant songs of love, and smell the breath of the springtime.

Grant us, we pray Thee, a heart wide open to all this joy and beauty, and save our souls from being so steeped in care or so darkened by passion that we pass heedless and unseeing when even the thorn-bush by the wayside is aflame with the glory of God.

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PriestWe have entrusted Penelope to God's mercy, and we now commit her body to the ground:

(the coffin is lowered into the grave)

…earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust: in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our frail bodies that they may be conformed to his glorious body, who died, was buried, and rose again for us. To him be glory for ever. All: Alleluia! Amen!

The balloons are now released as Peneloperequested, ‘into the Sussex sky with shouts of joy and clapping”.

BLESSING AND DISMISSALMay the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of God’s Son Jesus Christ our Lord. And the blessing of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be upon you now and forever. Amen.

Go now in peace. Thanks be to God.

All are invited to pay their final respects, in their own way. This may be by silent prayer or word of farewell, and by throwing earth or flowers into the grave.

Please join us and other members of the family at the Plough & Horses, Walshes Road, Crowborough, East Sussex TN6 3RE. It is about a ten minute walk from Crowborough train station. Maps will be available for drivers, who are encouraged to offer lifts to those who need them. Tobias, Charlotte, Thomas, Timothy

Portrait on front cover by Daniel Shadbolt; inside picture by Puck de Raadt; Officiant, Hugh Valentine, St James’s Church Piccadilly London www.st-james-piccadilly.org