When I first raised the possibility of running some type of bereavement group with our church Pastoral Care team, it was met with a ‘yes that’s a good idea’, however only three people felt they could realistically support. With encouragement from our minister and another church, we explored The Bereavement Journey® programme.   

St Andrew’s Methodist Church in Redditch has been awarded the Bereavement Friendly Church accreditation by AtaLoss. We run The Bereavement Journey® programme three times per year. It is a small group of no more than 8 participants, which enables everybody to have the space to speak in what can be an emotionally charged environment.

Springs Church embarked upon the training and preparation for The Bereavement Journey® a year after many associated with us had experienced grief from the loss of a loved one.  

We wanted to do something meaningful to bring encouragement to us all at that time. We also hoped that, after our training, we could offer similar support to others in our community around Caistor, Lincolnshire.

The parish of Gornal & Sedgley has three churches, St Andrew’s, St Peter’s and All Saints. Together, as a response to the pain and loss felt by so many during the Covid pandemic, we set up our bereavement hub, which is open to all. Our training initially came from the local hospice bereavement team and since then we have slowly grown in confidence, raising the profile of bereavement awareness across our three churches. 

Our journey to becoming a Bereavement Friendly Church has grown steadily over time. Knaresborough Team Ministry has had a strong pastoral care team for several years, comprising people who have done pastoral care training organised by Leeds Diocese. Several members of the team have a background in health or social care as well. 

We’re really pleased to be running The Bereavement Journey®  at Hospice in the Weald. It’s become a valuable part of our bereavement support, adding to and strengthening the care we already offer. 

St Mary Magdalene Stoke Bishop is, in many respects, a typical suburban Anglican church.  We take very seriously the call to connect with and serve the people of our parish, and one key part of this is our ministry to people who have been bereaved. 

Pam, founder of 2gether in Loss has thoughtfully adapted The Bereavement Journey® to be delivered outside traditional church settings, whilst it still includes the optional 7^th faith session.  

In February we did a day for the community on bereavement with an invited GP, lawyer, chaplain from St Michael’s Hospice, funeral director and our Rector – also we had information and leaflets from AtaLoss and Marie Curie. 

The bereavement journey here is just part of living. I had the wonderful exhibition ‘It takes a village’ from Scottish Palliative Care that went down a treat as it emphasised that bereavement is complex and can be seen in a variety of different ways.  I do ‘dress up’ for funerals, but I am always available to chat about life, death, grief, hope and loss, in shorts or a dog collar.

The Good News Church in Melksham recently celebrated running its 12^th The Bereavement Journey Course – having first run the programme after coming out of lockdown. 

Each year St Wulfram’s Church in Grantham runs a special service to mark World Suicide Prevention Day.   The service is for anyone who would like to pay tribute or remember a loved one, to show support for suicide prevention, for the survivors of suicide and the families and friends affected. 

As a church we are focussing on supporting those in the community who have been bereaved, and we encourage our congregation to reach out to those who are grieving.

As a charity, we have recently finished our first The Bereavement Journey course.  Soon after it, we decided to run another course as we found that there was more need for bereavement support in the community. 

The St Vincent de Paul (SVP) Society has been active in the Sacred Heart Parish in Droitwich, for many years. This is an international lay Christian organisation of men, women and young people working to help relieve suffering, whether this be loneliness, illness, homelessness or any other form of poverty. 

Sentient Counselling was given birth due to Covid-19. It was at a time when the death toll rose significantly within our local churches and the wider communities that we serve.  Pastors were conducting funeral services on a regular basis.

I began creating bespoke memory boxes for bereaved individuals several years ago. The idea was to curate a box filled with items that not only reflect the person who has died, but also offer grieving individuals and their families a meaningful way to gather and preserve memories.

Oundle Baptist Church has donated a diverse selection of books to Oundle Library for both adults and children.  Looking at tender topics around death, dying, loss and bereavement they will strengthen the library’s collection exploring these matters for borrowers.

Many of the church’s pastors and group leaders attended the Bereavement Care Awareness course face-to-face in 2018 and again in 2020 online.

Our Pastoral team of 15 participated in Care for the Family’s Bereavement Care Awareness training.  Every pastoral visitor has weekly visits.  We have retired nurses, doctors, and counsellors as part of the team.