Ceremony and Memorial Services in British Columbia
At KORU, we honour lives through ceremonies crafted with care and compassion.
Cermony Services
Whatever your culture, circumstance or challenge, we’re here to help you care for, remember, mourn and celebrate your family members and friends.
We can provide standard memorial services, traditional funeral services, and unique celebration of life services. When needed, we can work in collaboration with experienced event planners, particularly for creating a highly personalized and memorable ceremony service. Whether it is an in-person gathering, a virtual service, or a combination of the two, we can guide you through it all.
Memorial Packages
Our standard memorial packages can be customized to your preferences, but typically include planning services from our staff, room rental, and trained service attendants to manage the service. They also include allowances for a Celebrant and a catering package for 50 guests.
Explore Options
There is no one “right” way to honour and mourn for someone who has died. Have questions about our ceremony services or want to learn more? We’re here to walk alongside you and make it easy for you.
The Power of Ceremony
You may find solace in a traditional funeral mass or a sorrowful graveside ritual that rekindles stories told to you by your grandmother. A heartfelt and even joyous celebration of life may resonate with you. You may be yearning for a thoughtful and unique ethical ceremony that creates connection and meaning, and supports you through the reality of death. You may need guidance in sifting through different ideas. Still, you may know precisely what you want but need assistance in making it happen.
We’re here to walk with you in experiencing the power of ceremony as well as in exploring the myriad emotions that invariably arise when someone dies: grief and guilt, love and loss, healing, grace and gratitude.
All About Ceremony
- Ceremonies can be led by a religious leader like a priest, rabbi, reverend, imam, or minister, or they can be created and led by you, your family friend, your aunt, or by a person trained as a Celebrant or Officiant: a professional ceremony maker. We recommend several trusted and talented Life Celebrants on our Resources page.
- All funeral homes, regardless of who owns them, can organize a burial at any cemetery, regardless of who owns the cemetery. In other words, if your cemetery of choice owns and operates a funeral home, you are not obligated to use their funeral home.
- There are many words used to describe a “funeral service,” but essentially they all represent the same thing: honouring the life of someone who has died and offering an outlet for family and friends to mourn together.
- Your ceremony or service may be one of, or a combination of, these different types of ceremony: funeral service, wake, visitation, viewing, memorial service, celebration of life, graveside service, or living tribute.
- Resurrected names for ceremonies in which family and friends are involved in a more hands-on way (like in the ‘olden days’) are: family-led funeral, DIY funeral, or home funeral.
Vancouver and the Lower Mainland
Ceremony Venues
We recognize that, for a ceremony to resonate with you, the venue or gathering place may be a significant consideration.
It is for this reason that we deliberately chose not to have an on-site funeral chapel (to which you likely have no connection). Instead, we can help you choose and plan a ceremony in a location that is special to you and your family. This may be in a garden, a park setting, a local brewery or your backyard. Whatever the choice, we can help you.
Here is a brief list of venues we recommend; however, there are many other possibilities, so please contact us if you don’t see something that interests you.
- Celebration Hall at Mt. View Cemetery
- Great Hall at Centre for Peace
- BMO Great Hall at VanDusen Gardens
- Celebration Pavilion at Queen Elizabeth Park
Grief Ritual Recipes
Sometimes, we carry our grief really close to our hearts, and it’s not unusual to get lost in it. These “Grief Ritual Recipes” are guides for you to do something uncomplicated but meaningful, alone or with others, one time or repeatedly, to help ease your heart. They were created by Lisa Hartley, Celebrant and gifted to KORU to share with our community.
Find a beautiful place to sit, hopefully near the water, a stream, a lake, the ocean, a place of solitude and quiet.
Sit in silence.
If you feel moved, talk to the person who has died. If you wish, read them a letter, a poem, a story. You’re welcome to burn that letter into a small bowl, release it to the air.
When you’re done, take a deep breath and wash your hands and face in the water that is nearby, or just brush your hands off to finish the ceremony.
If it moves you, take a stone, a leaf, a flower, something to bring home in memory of this quiet time. Put it where you can see it and remember the peace it brought you.
Gather those who you can, and even if you’re on your own, make something special that they would love to eat with you.
It can be Kraft Dinner, or an elaborate dessert, something that brings you joy, and reminds you of them.
Set a place for them, and share stories about their life, as if they were there with you.
Light a candle, laugh, remember them well.
Or that you shared together. You can put things that remind you of them.
Put a candle in the middle – light it when you feel moved.
Rearrange the objects and the sand as you feel moved. I put a small clay mug with scotch out for my dad every night after he died. You could use a favourite item of theirs, such as a toy car, crossword puzzle, pieces glass or stone, jewelry, or play a favourite song.
Let it be active and creative.
Find a place in your home where you can put photographs and objects that remind you of the honoree.
Place a candle in the area, and when you feel moved, light the candle sit with it, settle yourself, and think of the person who has died.
If it feels comfortable, talk to them, share your thoughts and your fears.
Let your thoughts settle,
Sit in silence and when you are done blow out the candle.
Light it anytime you miss them and want to honour them.
