Rev. Christina is deeply honored to serve families as a minister for memorials, celebrations of life, funerals and ash scattering services. Her spiritual gifts are especially poignant in these healing ceremonies.

Have the weight of your grief lifted with Rev. Christina conducting a celebration of life service for your loved one.

“Rev. Christina Lee led my mother's “Celebration of Life” ceremony in Sept 2006. I highly recommend this elegant spiritual leader for your memorial and funeral services. She was very gracious and understanding at a time of intense grief.” – Marge P.

With Reverend Christina you will experience sensitive and personalized support. This will ensure a meaningful experience as you move through the remembering, the grief and the love. You can be assured that your special service will be handled the way you and your loved ones want it to be. Rev. Christina works closely with you to co-create a meaningful experience that both celebrates and deeply honors the person who has passed away.

“The memorial service was wonderful – so full of genuine love for Dad – it was really palpable. I had numerous comments about the service, the meditation and the overall feeling of the church itself. Friends and co-workers remarked how they could feel the love there that day." - Laurie T.

With Reverend Christina you will work with an experienced professional who has a warm, healing style of leading services. First and foremost this experience is about healing and transformation. Rev. Christina will help you reduce your stress, allowing you to focus on what is most important; your healing and grief process. Your family will feel at ease working with Christina and you will feel the comfort that you deserve.

“ Rev. Christina Lee was professional, organized and conducted the flow of the service perfectly, allowing just the right amount of time for prayer, mediation, readings, singing and personal stories.” – Elizabeth W.

Reverend Christina uses an inclusive approach that honors the universality of faith beliefs. Very often family members practice different religious beliefs. Rev. Christina's background with Unity gives her a strong foundation for understanding the universality of faith and how to sensitively integrate different beliefs into a service where all the attendees feel honored.

“ I appreciated her approach of being able to encompass many different faiths, religions and spiritual beliefs into a sermon that touched all hearts.” - Marge P.

With Reverend Christina you will be comforted in your planning consultation. There is nothing more important for you to do than to focus on your family and your loved one. Rev. Christina can help take the pressure off of you as you prepare for the service. You can focus on each other at a time when intense grief and sometimes shock make it difficult to manage your day-to-day activities.

Rev. Christina is an excellent choice for those who want to honor the life of a loved one through participatory end-of-life ritual and ceremony.

 

Rev. Christina is honored to support families as they celebrate the life of their loved one who has passed on. We know that “ Love Never Dies.” Her leadership ensures that you have the opportunity to participate in a meaningful ceremony when someone you love dies. Meaningful end-of-life ceremonies can be a vital element as we begin to heal from our loss.

Rev. Christina's role is to help your family plan for a personalized memorial, celebration of life or funeral service. She serves as facilitator, sensitive interviewer, creative writer, loving spiritual presence, professional public speaker and a ceremonial leader in her role as the celebrant of the service.

Friends and family often wish to participate in the planning and presentation of a personalized end of life ceremony, but are uncertain how to do so. They may be uncomfortable with public speaking and/or speaking publicly about death and loss. An increasing number of people say they are non-religious and may define their spirituality in different ways. A funeral, memorial or celebration of life service that reflects an individual's lifestyle and personality often mirrors their spiritual nature.

“ The whole focus was only on my mother, her life and the relationship she shared with each person whether they were a family member or a friend… The kind and meaningful words, throughout the whole ceremony, helped me to start the process of healing. We celebrated my mother's life in joyful sadness and Christina gently guided each person to remember, commemorate, rejoice and honor.” – Marge P.

When planning the service you may consider these “Freedoms for Creating Meaningful Services”:

1.  You have the freedom to make use of ritual.

2.  You have the freedom to ask friends and family members to be involved.

3.  You have the freedom to embrace your pain during the service.

4.  You have the right to plan a service that reflects your spirituality.

5.  You have the freedom to remember your memories during the service.

6.  You have the freedom to be tolerant of your physical and emotional limits.

On this Page:

• Planning
• Ceremony
• Readings
• Pet Memorials

“Dad's passing is leaving a huge void in our lives, but I am so grateful to have received the multitude of gifts from him that he shared so unconditionally. Lessons on how to live a good life, which I witnessed throughout the years, will forever be a part of who I am. I will draw on his inspiration and optimism for the remainder of my life. Dad was such an amazingly ‘good' man and I am deeply grateful to have been blessed with him as my father.” – Laurie T.

Every ceremony is customized to fit the spiritual beliefs and desires of the family and loved one.

“I just want to thank you again for that beautiful service. We listened to the tape yesterday and it was truly the most comforting, beautiful service that I have ever heard. I loved that the service was about Dad and his spirit, that it truly celebrated him, as a person. I must tell you that my husband (non practicing Catholic) loved it as well. Of course, he is used to men priests and a totally different format and he said that when you first started, with your soft voice that he wasn't sure if he would like it. Well, he did, and he spoke about the meditation several times. This was totally new to him and he really liked it. The day was perfect and even better than what we had hoped for! Thank you once again.” - Carley S.

Some of the healing messages shared by Rev. Christina during the memorial service include:

When we are faced with death it reminds us of the fragilities of life. We are faced with our own physical mortality and the mortality of our loved ones. One of the gifts we receive from this experience is to use the time we have been given to do those things that we were put here to do - to express our talents and more importantly, to express our love for one another.

We are here to release what was and make room for what shall be; as we know within our hearts and minds that life does not end but merely transforms. Today we say goodbye, and yet in another way we also say hello. We say goodbye to the physical focus of our relationship with ______, and we greet the relationship with their soul that now begins anew.

We are here to remember what they taught each person here and how they touched your life. It is a time to celebrate the gift of their life. This is a time for us to accept what has happened, and to express our feelings of grief and loss, because although we know that their spirit still lives, their physical presence will be missed.

We will miss the very human experience of our connection with ______ our shared stories and our histories. Yet we also open our hearts today, that our relationships with ______ might be reborn through the grace of God.

______ made a difference. They touched our hearts. they shall live as an angel on your shoulders. They shall watch over you and protect you and send to you all manner of good. May your heart and eyes remain open!

Most importantly, we are here to release ______ on their continuing journey in life and into the eternal care of God's everlasting Love. We know that the body is merely the temple of the soul. We affirm that ______ now lives on; They have simply taken on another form and are continuing their journey in another dimension, another plane of existence. Thank You God.

Order of Service

The Memorial Service or Celebration of Life Service typically contains some of the following elements:

1.  Prelude Music

2.  Welcome and Opening Prayer

3.  Reading

4.  Special Music

5.  Minister's Message

6.  Remembrance Meditation

7.  Reading

8.  Eulogy - Celebrating Their Life

9.  Sharing Our Memories

10. Special Music

11. Closing Prayer

12. Postlude Music

“I was very moved and spiritually uplifted by the memorial service that Rev. Christina conducted for one of the elders of our community. 

Although she had only met the man a few times, she gave a beautiful personalized message honoring who he was and reminding us of the gifts that he had given all of us. 

I felt that she was our "spiritual midwife", helping us grieve his death not as the end of our relationship with him, but as the beginning of a new spiritual relationship. 

She reminded us that the love and memories we share live on in our hearts, and that a part of him lives on through his loving family and his virtues that we emulate. 

Although the service had its share of tears, it also had more laughter and smiles on the faces and in the hearts of those who had loved and lost someone very dear to them. 

I believe that Rev. Christina has a special gift for supporting families through this transition, and having provided music for dozens of services and celebrations for over thirty years, I can honestly say that this service was one of the most meaningful and grace-filled celebrations that I have had the privilege to attend. “

- Susan S., Hospice Music Therapist

 

The memorial readings serve to enhance your personal feelings about the life and the death of your loved one. Every ceremony is customized to fit the spiritual beliefs and desires of the family. Here are some sample readings that you may want to consider using.

I'm Free - Shannon Lee Moseley

Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free.
I'm following the path God has laid, you see.
I took God's hand when I heard the call,
I turned my back and left it all.

I could not stay another day.
To laugh, to love, to work or play.
Tasks left undone must stay that way.
I found my peace at the close of the day.

If my parting has left a void,
Then fill it with remembered joys.
A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss.
Oh yes, these things I too will miss.

Be not burdened with times of sorrow.
I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow.
My life's been full, I savored much.
Good friends, good times, a loved one's touch.

Perhaps my time seemed all too brief.
Don't lengthen it now with undue grief.
Lift up your hearts and peace to thee.
God wanted me now; I am set free!

From The Prophet on Death - Kahlil Gibran

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides,
that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountaintop, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

There is No Death – Bishop Brent

I stand upon the seashore.  A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and moves softly out to the blue ocean.  She is an object of beauty and strength.  I stand and look at her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with one another.  Then someone at my side exclaims – “Look, she's gone”! Gone where?  Gone from my sight, that is all.  She is just as large in mast and hull as she ever was.  Her diminished size lies in me, not her.  And at the very moment when someone at my side exclaims, “Look, she's gone”, there are other eyes eagerly watching her approach, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, “Look, she's coming”!  And that is death.

23rd Psalm – King James Version Bible

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil;
My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

 

Rev. Christina is also available to support you when your beloved pet makes their transition. In 2006, she experienced the transition of a wonderful 4-legged companion, Ayla, who lived with her for 18 years. The healing process can be beautifully supported by a special service honoring the life of your pet who has passed away.

This favorite poem can soothe us during this time of loss.

 

The Rainbow Bridge - Anonymous

There is a bridge connecting Heaven and Earth.
It is called the Rainbow Bridge because of its many colors. 
Just the other side of the bridge
There is a land of endless meadows, hills and valleys, with lush green grass.
When our beloved pet dies, they go to this place, where there is always food
And water, and warm spring weather. 

Here those who had grown old and frail are restored to health and vigor;
And those who had been maimed or hurt are made whole and strong again.
Here, they play all day with each other - happy and content – except for one small thing:
They miss someone very special to them who had to be left behind.

Each day, they run and play until one day, one suddenly stops playing and looks up. 
The nose twitches, the ears are alert, the eyes stare, the eager body quivers. 
Then this one breaks away from the group, flying over the green grass, swift as the wind. 

For you have been seen, when you and your special friend
Meet at last, you take them in your arms and embrace. 
Your face is kissed again and again and again. 
Your hands again caress their beloved head,
And you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet,
So long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross the Rainbow Bridge together,
Never again to be separated.