Living Hope Funerals is a Christian funeral service that operates across Sydney. Their mission is to provide contemporary, authentic, faith-based funerals that celebrate life and lives well lived. They seek to minister God’s love and comfort to grieving individuals and families during an extremely difficult time.
Established in partnership with the Transform Southern Sydney network of Baptist Churches, Living Hope Funerals is a Christian organisation, providing funding for church ministries, leadership training and missions.
In May 2023, Living Hope Funerals celebrated its first birthday. “We have learned so much and have developed a good quality service that reflects our values and aspirations,” says Dave, Managing Director, “every funeral has been different, reflecting the diverse community and people we are serving”. God has gone before Living Hope every step of the way. From establishing and growing the business, to going before them in each and every funeral. Dave reflects on the way God plans details in funerals that are beyond what they could ever have planned, such as matching flowers with the stained-glass windows in the church.
Most of the funerals Living Hope does are Christian funerals, but not exclusively. Over the year they have been operating, the team have ministered in a wide range of spaces, including the grief of a Greek Orthodox family, a Catholic woman’s farewell of her husband who had committed suicide, and a pastor who had lost his young child.
For the team at Living Hope Funerals, the work they do is more than just a job. “It’s a labour of compassion,” says Mike, Funeral Director. Reflecting on the story of Jesus raising the widow’s son in Luke 7, Mike says that he sees their role as being the pall bearers. In the grief of the widow and her community, the pall bearers brought the people to Jesus, and paused, creating time and space for Jesus to meet people in their grief.
In Christian funerals, Living Hope works in partnership with the church and local pastor, believing that better funeral services give space for the pastor to lead their congregation through their grief. Living Hope Funerals seeks to increase the pastoral role of pastors in the funeral services that they run.
If you’d like to learn more about Living Hope Funerals, you can get in touch via their website. https://livinghopefunerals.com.au/
