What Are The Most Popular Hymns for Funerals?

As everyone knows, planning a funeral is a difficult, emotional and time-consuming process. With so many things to organise, some things can find themselves left by the wayside until the day draws near. For example, what hymns do you want to be sung during the proceedings?

Obviously, there’s thousands upon thousands of options available, but with everything going on, you may not have time to look through them all. In this blog, I’m going to cover some of the most popular hymns sung at funerals, and hope to help you pick some out that you feel are appropriate for the occasion.

Even to those that don’t know the first thing about funeral hymns, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn’t recognise this one. Amazing Grace is seen as a hymn which provides a message of finding peace and salvation after death:

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound!
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now I’m found;
Was blind, but now I see.

Another well-known hymn amongst the general public, Jerusalem is often associated with patriotism, meaning it would be particularly suitable for someone who took a lot of pride in their English heritage. The hymn is actually a musical version of William Blake’s 1804 poem:

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?

At first, you may not think of this as a funeral hymn, more of a general religious one used in church ceremonies. However, All Things Bright and Beautiful is a regular choice for funerals, and is seen as a religious celebration of life. It may be one to consider if you’re trying to keep the funeral more upbeat and positive; remembering the deceased fondly instead of simply mourning them:

All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful,
the Lord God made them all.

Another well-known hymn, Nearer My God to Thee focuses on a more positive aspect of death for the religious, which is being closer to God in Heaven:

Though like the wanderer,
The sun gone down,
Darkness be over me,
My rest a stone,
Angels to beckon me
Nearer, my God, to thee,
Nearer, my God, to thee,
Nearer to thee!

The final hymn that I’m going to focus on in this blog, Be Not Afraid is another upbeat song which will help to keep proceedings more positive. The hymn focuses on looking to God for strength in trying times:

Be not afraid,
I go before you always,
Come follow Me,
And I shall give you rest.

Thank you for taking the time to read today’s blog, I hope you found it interesting. For more blogs on similar subjects, please visit funeral-notices.co.uk/blog.

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