The Annual General Meeting for 2006/07 of Cruse Bereavement Care took place at the University of Westminster on Saturday 24 November, with guest speaker the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham James.

The Bishop recalled the early years of his ministry - 32 years ago - when he conducted about 150 funerals a year, sometimes more. “I spent a lot of time with bereaved families in the immediate aftermath of death,” he told the meeting of volunteers, council members, staff and trustees. “Death, bereavement and grief were familiar to me in my 20s in a way that is not usual in this country.”

He went on to say how little most people in our society now have to do with death. “To have reached your late 50s and never to have seen a dead person is a very peculiar experience in the whole of history, but it seems it is now commonplace.

“The length of time people live, the nature of our medical processes, means we are the first generation to have been sheltered from death for such a long period of our lives; so perhaps that is why bereavement, which is one of the commonest of all human experiences, comes as a surprise to so many people.”

The Bishop pointed out that a death had once been a shared family - even a community - experience. Funeral services had taken place mainly in churches - places of birth, marriage and life - rather than in crematorium chapels set aside solely for death. “There is something about recognising this will be your experience some day, not just someone else’s,” he added.

However, new rituals are replacing the old. “Roadside shrines following fatal car accidents are one example - I approve of that. How many people now light candles to commemorate their loved ones?”

The Bishop pointed out that there is much that is changed in commemorations and symbols, often contributed by people who do not have a religious background. “Funerals are more informal, friendlier, not so much about ritual; people like to choose the music and to speak, but this can be hard to handle and add new pressures. People don’t want to be morbid, but have a good party afterwards - but it can mask grief.”

About Cruse, the Bishop said: “You came into being precisely when our social conventions began to change. I don’t think it is a coincidence. It is when we came to require more bereavement counselling, more professional and skilled help, and I think Cruse is now needed more than ever - which is why I am associated with it. It is needed more than ever because the complexities of our experiences are rarely held in the sort of social framework that assists us while we work them through, and it is that lack that means your own particular contributions are so necessary.”

He added: “That an organisation dealing with such a universal human experience struggles with finance and recognition is in itself is a sign of the way that our society is still liable to marginalise things that most concern Cruse. And that is why it is important to give you and the 5,700 volunteers the support and recognition you deserve."

The 2006-2007 Annual Report and Accounts (pdf 533KB)

Strategic priorities 2006-2009

See earlier annual reports and accounts

Please click on the links to view the documents in pdf format.
To download Acrobat Reader click here

If you would like an annual report to be sent to you please email: info@cruse.org.uk
or write to:
Cruse Bereavement Care, PO Box 800, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1RG