Last Rights
Last Rights is an organisation working to encourage and support existing and new opportunities to celebrate and respect human last rights and rites.
Last Rights – Helping to encourage and support last human rights and rites.
Last Rights is made up of individuals and groups with a broad range of interests, including representatives from environmental, secular and religious groups.
Last Rights has several objectives, one being increased availability of land for use as Green Burial Sites. The land can be provided from a variety of sources from local councils to landowners with half an acre or more to spare. The planting of trees could mark burial plots, this in turn would help re-populate our native trees and become a natural haven for wild life. Green Burials are ecologically safe, natural and an important way forward for a sustainable future.
Helping your last wishes to be heard. Please support us now, so that we may support you later.
If you would like further information about our group, interested in joining out team or feel you could help, please contact us:
Lorely or Diane
Last Rights – Areas of interest
- To encourage and support last human rights and rites.
- To encourage and support the celebration of all life stages especially the last, through the existing diversity of formal and informal ritual. To assist in changing existing perceptions of the last stages of life.
- To collate and make available a comprehensive resource of local and global information on all aspects including culture, green burial sites, religious and secular organisations; supporting choice and the opportunities to make active contributions.
- To encourage and support existing provision (eg Penmount Crematorium and Local Councils) to adapt to the evolving requirements of individual requests.
- To encourage and support organisations that manage woodland/green burial sites and informal last rites.
- To support and encourage the establishment of accessible green burial sites. Assist Town and Parish Councils in their local obligations for burials.
- To promote the Last Rights ethos.
Extracts from newspapers October 2002. Guardian and Independent):-
Rushed cremations and embarrassing eulogies delivered by clergy who did not know the deceased should be a thing of the past, says a report from the Funeralcare Forum
Research commissioned by the Co-operative Group, the country’s leading funeral director, found that people want more control over planning for the ceremony and the design of the memorial
Clare Rayner, the “agony aunt”, said “We should not be afraid to set out our funeral wishes so that those close to us know exactly what we want. Nor as consumers, should we be frightened to demand from funeral providers the right to have those wishes fulfilled”.
Extracts from “Rest in Green Peace” article from the Henry Doubleday Association journal:-
“Even when we leave this life we leave our ghostly footprints. We may choose a green lifestyle, but we rarely consider the decisions made for us after we die. It seems as if this taboo has shielded the UK funeral industry from engaging in public debate about its environmental credentials.
It could be argued that there are far more pressing areas for environmentalists to focus their efforts upon. However, although solving the ecological problems of funerals won’t save the world, it would be another step towards a sustainable society.
An “alternative” funeral can help with the emotional and spiritual side of death. As belief in formal religions declines, and crematoria carry on in a checkout fashion, woodland funerals offer a more personal alternative.
How wonderful it would be for people generations ahead to be able to walk among trees that had been planted as a memorial at a burial. It is a way of joining the nutrient cycle and returning yourself to the soil in every sense.”