LDS Funeral Program Template

How the service is organized

When a funeral is held in a Church building, the bishop or a member of the bishopric presides and conducts, even when the family plans most of the content. The bishop meets with the family, hears their wishes, and settles the final order with them. If the service is held in a funeral home, practice varies, and the family should ask the bishop what his role will be.

The order itself will feel familiar to anyone who has attended sacrament meeting. It moves simply, without processions or formal liturgy.

A customary order of service

• Prelude music
• Conducting and welcome by a member of the bishopric
• Opening hymn
• Invocation
• Life sketch, often given by a family member
• Speakers, typically two or three
• Musical number, a choir, soloist, or family performance
• Closing remarks, often by the bishop
• Closing hymn
• Benediction
• Postlude, with the casket and family departing for the cemetery

What the program prints

The first inside panel usually carries the order of service with names attached to every part. LDS programs conventionally include a conducting line near the top, for example Conducting, Bishop David Sorensen, and when someone other than the conductor presides, a presiding line as well. List each hymn with its number from the hymnbook so the congregation can join.

Print the names of those offering the invocation and benediction, each speaker, and each musical number with its performers. Families often add the organist or pianist and the chorister, since the service depends on them.

The facing panel or the back usually holds the family listing. Parents, spouse, children and their spouses, grandchildren counted or named, and siblings. Pallbearers are listed by name, and many families include honorary pallbearers, often grandsons or close friends. A short obituary or the life sketch in written form can fill a remaining panel if there is room.

The tone the Church asks for

Church leaders have long counseled that funerals are worship services, not variety programs, and that they should be reverent and centered on the Savior and the plan of salvation. Speakers testify of the Resurrection and speak of the person's life in that light. Tributes belong, and so do warm and even gentle humorous memories, but the counsel is to keep the meeting dignified and spiritually focused.

For the program, this means restraint serves you well. A temple photograph, a favorite scripture, a simple cover with the person's name and dates. Extended slideshows, open microphones, and long secular playlists are generally saved for a family gathering or the viewing rather than the chapel service. When the family is unsure whether something fits, the bishop is the one to ask, and he will answer kindly.

The dedication of the grave

After the chapel service, family and friends usually travel to the cemetery, where the grave is dedicated. This is a priesthood ordinance, distinct from the funeral itself. A Melchizedek Priesthood holder, asked by the family and authorized by the presiding officer, dedicates the grave as a resting place for the body and prays that it may be protected until the Resurrection, adding words of comfort as the Spirit directs.

In the program, one line is enough. Dedication of the Grave, followed by the name of the priesthood holder and the cemetery. If the interment is private, the program can simply say Interment, with the cemetery name, and note that it is private. Where a grave dedication is not possible or the family prefers otherwise, a graveside prayer may be offered instead, and the bishop can help the family decide.

Settle the final order with the bishop

Before the program goes to print, review it with the bishop or the counselor who will conduct. He will confirm the order, the conducting and presiding lines, the hymn numbers, and who has been asked to pray, speak, and dedicate the grave.

Bishops do this often and gently. A ten minute review means the conducting from the pulpit and the paper in every hand tell the same story, and the family can sit down and be ministered to.