-
01273 766620
-
01273 621444
-
info@arkafunerals.co.uk
Celebrants
As part of our team at ARKA Original Funerals, we are proud to include experienced and gifted celebrants. We are unique in this respect too.
Our celebrants not only create beautiful and personal funeral ceremonies, they are also trained and experienced in every practical aspect of organising a funeral ceremony and are fully committed to our ethos of ecological awareness. They were carefully chosen to be ARKA celebrants and most have been part of our team for many years.
ARKA Original Funerals is committed to supporting people of all beliefs and cultural identities, and our celebrants can include rites and rituals of any religion in the ceremony or if preferred, create a non-religious, person-centred ceremony. Your loved one, your memories, their story, will always be at the heart of the ceremony. They will meet with you, perhaps in your own home, and spend time listening carefully to the hopes you have for the funeral ceremony. From this meeting they will begin to write the ceremony and make any changes to the structure as you wish. They gently offer ideas and suggestions, help with your choice of music and readings and they write a bespoke ceremony reflecting everything you have spoken about. Our celebrants will then conduct the ceremony in a professional yet sensitive way.
In addition to our group of ARKA celebrants we work with some talented people who are independent but still work hard to support families to put together meaningful, beautiful tributes in honour of the person who has died. We work with a really wide range of people and will work as effectively with a celebrant or minister of your choice as the people we work with regularly.
Please meet our ARKA celebrants:
-
Adrienne has supported Arka ceremonies for many years, she is warm, creative but is down to earth and passionate about creating personal ceremonies. She is flexible and cares deeply about her work.
Adrienne Thomas
-
Li Mills, who is also one of our funeral arrangers, brings a warmth and honesty that is very much appreciated by families she has supported. She comes from a teaching background but is also very involved in the Death Doula movement and leads various local choirs. Very skilled in so many areas and very much part of the community here in Brighton.
Li Mills
-
Peter Owen Jones works as a parish priest. He is also a presenter for the BBC, working on programmes such as ‘Around the World in Eighty Faiths’ and ‘How to live a simple life’. In his work for the BBC he has experienced many different faith perspectives, and taken part in many different ceremonies. It is this unique combination of experience that has led him to our door.
Peter Owen Jones
-
Julie feels blessed and honoured to have the opportunity to work with families and individuals to create beautiful funeral ceremonies. She believes that it’s important that you take as much time as is needed to be sure that everything is just as you want it to be; whether the ceremony that’s right for you or your loved one is wildly creative, very simple or anything in between, she will ensure that it is always intensely personal and beautiful.
Julie Gill
-
River Jones is an independent celebrant. She is a member of the Fellowship of Professional Celebrants, River is passionate about upholding the motto of ‘respecting all faiths and none’, and creating ceremonies where everyone can feel welcome and relaxed. She is also a member of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids and very happy to draw on the inspiration of the natural world in her work.
River Jones
-
Simon’s ceremonies are non religious and are ‘rites of passage’ that offer a chance for people to witness together a transitional moment in their lives. “I believe funerals are about coming to terms with loss, it is my hope that participants enter a ceremony in one state and leave acknowledging that something has changed in them (and for them) for the better. People tell me I am a kind, funny, pragmatic, approachable and creative man. I am a widower, so I have experience of Love and Loss, and Love again. I have lived in Brighton for nearly 30 years and have three young daughters to keep me on my toes.”
Simon Smith