Stay tuned to next week as I share what went wrong once the service got underway at 12:15p.m. It went from bad to worse and from worse to worser. Ooowee! Let me see if the word worser is even in the dictionary?
The funeral service, just too long! Part II
Ooowee!
If you didn’t read last week’s Bishop Speaks column, Part I, in regards to the funeral service – I just intended to stop by, pay my respects and leave, but ended up being there held hostage most of the day – I suggest you go to www.callandpost.com and catch up. Ooowee!
For starters, after this experience, I finally sat down and put my entire homegoing celebration on paper with strict orders for the person in charge to change nothing. If I should leave this body and pass on it’s a fact that I had it my way cause I had my say, meaning the cemetery where my body is to be laid have already been paid for in full after many monthly installments.
I had my say on the very spot where in the ground I will go and at times visited this precious location. Now, with just the headstone to be designed and paid for (which is now in process), I HAD MY SAY. I also had my say when selecting the funeral home, picking out my casket, and even telling the funeral home director what I want to wear for my viewing.
What you ask? You’ve guessed it… my bishop’s robe.
I still laugh after asking the funeral home director if I could get in the casket to make sure I fit. The look on her face, I cannot express in words as she laughed with the answer, “Naw bishop.”
My point being, I’ll have my way by having my say in everything I want to be done.
Still in excellent health and planning not to leave here soon, once again, after that long funeral service experience, I’m having my say and will have my way with my homegoing celebration by writing out my funeral service.
I must confess that I didn’t even want a funeral service and expenses to be used to put this body of mine in the ground but my love ones convinced me to “not be selfish.”
Well, I’m now being selfish by writing my own program, having it my way, making sure my Celebration of Life won’t go over an hour. That’s what I said an HOUR! Simply put, as a songwriter wrote, “Let the works I’ve done for Him, speak for me.”
Amen!
I said last week that you can’t preach anyone into heaven or hell because God has the final say. So, why did this funeral service take so long?
At least when I looked at the funeral service for Whitney Houston on TV, I washed clothes, ran to the store, fixed me something to eat, took a shower, ran back out and got a haircut, and arrived back home with her service still going on.
But, at this service, I could not do anything ‘cause I was stuck on that pulpit and the only way out was through the front door of this packed, hot church. Ooowee!
I asked last week in my column and I’ll address the first question. How long should a funeral service take? Now, I can give an emotional answer or a factual answer. Emotions don’t think, they just do and react. The fact of the matter is that the clock, meaning time, doesn’t wait on anyone. Some cemeteries will charge a fee if you’re late. On Saturdays, the cemetery would like you to arrive no later than noon if possible. They will make exceptions but might charge a fee as well. The service I attended was on a weekday which meant time was an important factor.
The body was at the funeral home for viewing the day before, ALL DAY LONG, until the funeral home locked its doors at 9 p.m. The day of the service, at the church, family and friends could view from 10 a.m. to 11. am., yet the viewing went on till 12:15.pm. The order of the program got out of order. For starters, the service didn’t start at 11a.m., as written on the program.
Why did this happen and who allowed for it to happen? I asked last week. I also asked what are individuals saying as they quickly view the body and now greeting the family of the deceased. The line was often at a standstill. I simply greeted each family member with a hug and tried to make my way out the door when the pastor grabbed my hand and led me to the pulpit.
Ooowee!
Stay tuned to next week as I share what went wrong once the service got underway at 12:15p.m. It went from bad to worse and from worse to worser. Ooowee! Let me see if the word worser is even in the dictionary?
I’m going to try and wrap this up next week. I just have to take my time because each of you, my readers, might not be trying to get out your coffin to walk to the cemetery cause people don’t have “Common Sense” to… well stay tune to next week.
You can e-mail the Bishop at bishopspeaks@aol.com. Check the bishop out on Facebook under Bishop Prince J. Moultry or the church website at www.intouchforchrist.com. You can call the church at (216) 761-7100 or visit the church each Sunday 11a.m. for its Worship Service at 969 E. 140th St. Cleveland, Ohio 44110 off 140th St. Clair in the heart of the Collinwood Community.
