It is with some trepidation I post here [View all]

[BainsBane]

but I need some help. I am planning a memorial service for my father who recently died. He was not religious but not an atheist, more agnostic. He did not ask to see a pastor while in the hospital dying, didn't speak of God or the afterlife. He did not consider himself a Christian but our family celebrates the traditional Christian holidays more as secular, family events. Holidays are an opportunity for us all to get together, share a meal, and spend time together. My dad's ashes will be buried in a memorial garden at a Unitarian Universalist Church because that is where his parents' ashes are.

We asked an Episcopal Priest to officiate at the proceeding because he is friends with my dad back from the old hippie days. All my dad's hippie friends know the priest, and he is totally welcoming of people from all theist and non-theist outlooks. Now the priest is willing to do any kind of readings/prayers/poems, we would like. I think a strongly religious service would be inappropriate, but I'm not opposed to some ecumenical/non-denominational readings. I need to come up with some readings and poems for the priest to read at the memorial. I am hoping people here would offer some suggestions from inter-faith and non-theist perspectives.

I request this doesn't become a discussion about the merits or ills of religion. I just seek some advice, and I hope that folks here might have some suggestions.

Thanks very much,
BB