PLANNING FOR THE FINAL CELEBRATION OF LIFE The best possible person to plan your funeral is you. This outline is an effort to help parishioners of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church to understand the choices available to them. It has been designed in two parts to guide you through a process. We recommend that you give the Church one copy to keep on file; another to your family; a third to your attorney; and keep a fourth with your will. PART A: PLANNING THE FUNERAL Each of us will die. When we die, it falls to members of our family, friends, distant relatives, or total strangers to plan our services and burials. Planning such things when you are grieving is both hard and time-consuming. Often members of the surviving family live far apart and have never discussed these matters. When the time for planning comes they can have very different ideas about what the deceased person would have preferred or about what would be appropriate. The best way to avoid all this struggle, and even disagreement about what should be done, is to make your own plans. It is a very thoughtful gift both to your family and to yourself. You simply leave written instructions saying, "This is what I prefer." Before planning the service, with its many options, it will be helpful to your family if you provide certain preliminary information: 1. Do you wish to be buried in a casket? __________ 2. Do you prefer to be cremated? _______________ (Do you wish direct cremation?) __________ 3. Do you wish to have a viewing? ______________ (Once the casket is closed at the Funeral Home, it will not be reopened at the Church) 4. Who should be notified of your death? (In addition to family and friends, list Social Security, pension funds, especially military pension funds, insurance companies, organizations, schools and colleges, professional and other associations known only to you.) By Telephone: ____________________________________________________________ By mail: _________________________________________________________________ use a separate sheet if necessary 5. Are you entitled to military honors? __________ If so, where are your discharge papers? _________________________________________________ 6. If you own a burial plot, where is the deed? ______________________________________ 7. Who do wish to conduct your funeral? __________________________________________ 8. Who should be invited to speak about you? ______________________________________ 9. Is there anyone who should not be invited to participate or attend? ___________________ 10. Have you made a will or created a revocable trust? _________ 11. Does your will make prudent provision for the well being of family, with clear directions about the guardianship of any minor children, and the arrangements for their nurture and education? _______ 12. Does your will or trust leave bequests for charitable purposes, including Holy Trinity? ______ 13. Where are your will and other important papers? ___________________________________ 14. Where is your security box and where is the key? ____________________________________ 15. Where is your passport? ______________________________ 16. Do you have valuable papers that need to be kept? _________ Where are they? _____________________________________ 17. Where are bank books, stock certificates, titles and deeds of ownership? ________________ 18. Have you compiled a list of valuable and/or treasured items and their proposed recipients apart From your will? Where is that list? _______________________________________ 19. Whom have you designated as your executor? ____________________________________ 20. Does anyone have any outstanding obligations to you about which your family or executor should be aware? ______________________________________ 21. Who has your Power of Attorney? ______________________________________________ 22. Have you made an "advanced directive/living will" and/or healthcare proxy? ______________ Where is it? _____________________________________ Who has copies? _________________________________ Who is your healthcare proxy? ___________________________ What is that person's telephone number? ___________________ 23. Do you own property of which others may not be aware? __________ Where is it? _____________________________________ 24. Do you have partnerships in properties or businesses of which others may not be aware? _________________________________________ Where are the corporate offices? ___________________________ 25. Do you have death benefits of which others may not be aware? __________ Please list: ____________________________________________________ PLANNING FOR THE FINAL CELEBRATION OF LIFE PART B: PLANNING THE SERVICE The Vicar would be happy to meet with you to assist in the planning of this Service. Burial Services at Holy Trinity are from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979 utilizing Rite One found on page 469 or Rite Two beginning on page 491. The appropriate place for the Service is in the Church and in the context of the Holy Eucharist. Your full name: ________________________________________ The date of your birth: ___________________________________ RITE I (traditional English): __________ or RITE II (modern English): __________ Do you wish a Funeral Service with body or creamains present? (Recommended) Music Within the service there are opportunities for the singing of several hymns. Please list your preferences from the Episcopal Hymnal 1982. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Readings and Prayers There are normally three readings from the Bible interspersed with Psalms. The suggested Psalms, listed below from the Book of Common Prayer, need not be used in the order that they appear. Psalms do not have to be used at all. 1. The first reading is from the Old Testament or from the Apocrypha. Choose one of the following: ______Isaiah 25:6-9 ______Isaiah 61:1-3 ______Lamentations 3:22-26; 31-33 ______Wisdom of Solomon (Apocrypha) 3:1-5, 9 ______Job 19:21-27a (the "a" means the first phrase in that verse) 2. Choose a Psalm: 42:1-7_____; or 46 _____; or 90:1-12 _____; or 121 _____; or 130 _____; or 139:1-11 _____. 3. The second reading is from the New Testament. Choose one. _______Romans 8:14-19, 34-35, 37-39 _______ I Corinthians 15:20-26, 35-38, 42-44 _______II Corinthians 4:16-5:9 _______I John 3:1-2 _______Revelation 7:9-17 _______Revelation 21:2-7 4. Choose a second Psalm: 23 King James Version _____; or 23 Prayer Book Version _____; or 27 _____; or 106:1-5 _____; or 116 _____. 5. The Gospel. Choose one. ______John 5:24-27 ______John 6:37-40 ______John 10:11-16 ______John 11:21-27 ______John 14:1-6 6. The Homily/Sermon. The priest will preach on the Resurrection of the Dead. 7. The Apostle’s Creed may be said. 8. The Prayers of the People. 9. The Communion. 10. Other suitable prayers you might want to consider from the Prayer Book: ______The final collect on page 280 ______Collect number 25, page 823 ______Collect number 54, page 831 ______Collect number 62, page 833 ______Collect number 63, page 833 ______Collect number 4, page 838 ______Collect number 6, page 839 11. Any additional readings in the Burial Office or at the grave site committal: ______________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 12. Additional requests: ____________________________________________________________________________________ 13. It would be helpful if you would attach a finished obituary or the outline of an obituary. __________________________________________ ___________________________________ Signature Date Copies of this form should be given to your family, your attorney, your designated Executor and the church office at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 7th and Star, PO Box 81, Bonham, Texas 75418. If you need any assistance in completing this form, please do not hesitate to call the Vicar.