Although organized religion is in decline, most funerals in Britain continue to be conducted according to the rites of one or other of the Christian churches. This book seeks to give those engaged in or training for the pastoral ministry two things: first, some sense of how the place of religion, the nature of the funeral service and patterns of dying, mourning and grieving have changed in Britain recently (roughly from the 1960s); second, some pointers to good practice today.