Let’s not pretend George Michael was a saint, his morality was as mixed up as the rest of us

Dec 30, 2016 by Jill

by Peter Ould, Premier:

The news this morning of the death of Debbie Reynolds barely 48 hours after that of her daughter Carrie Fisher, most famous for playing Princess (General) Leia in the Star Wars franchise, is one more piece of sadness at what is meant to be a festive time of year. Reynolds was apparently planning her daughter’s funeral when she suffered a stroke which took her life. Before this, on Christmas Day we learnt that the singer George Michael had been found dead at his Oxfordshire home by his partner. Since then the media has been full of tributes to these stars.

As a priest in the Church of England, I have been helped at times of sorrow by our prayer books which shapes our funeral service around three key points – thanksgiving, remembrance and letting go. The first of those two things appear to the be the same, but on reflection they are profoundly different. When we give thanks we are celebrating what was good about the person we are grieving, but in remembrance we bring the whole of the person’s life to mind and that includes their faults and the wounds that they leave behind. Every funeral should have a time of confession and absolution – a moment to recognise that things are not perfect, that we hurt people (and are hurt by them) as much as we love them, that behind every picture of a saint is often a hidden sinner.

Read here