Rest in purgatory
Sir: Ludovic Kennedy will certainly be in a quandary when the time comes for him to be making arrangements for his funeral or for those of his like-minded friends (Diary, 8 February), and I am relieved to see that Nigel.Collins, the grandiosely named Cere- monies Co-ordinator for the British Humanist Association, has bravely come to his aid (Letters, 22 February). However, neither seems to have fully grasped the dif- ficulty of giving an atheist a proper send-off to a meeting with a Person in whose exis- tence he or she stubbornly refused to believe. Mary Killen may have her own sug- gestions of course, but there really is no comfort for the 'fool who says in his heart there is no God'.
I suggest that the 'Officiants' at 'funerals without God' retain the inscription RIP for their departed followers, as long as they are aware that for them the initials stand for Requiescat In Purgatorio.
R.A. Massie-Blomfield Cavina School, P 0 Box 43090, Nairobi
Previous page
