IF YOU had been anywhere near the southern end of London Bridge today, you might well have seen an unusual crowd of people emerging from one of the city's oldest places of worship, Southwark (pronounced Suthark) Cathedral. Not just robed clerics from the Anglican and other churches and representatives of other faiths: there were also medical students of many ethnic and religious backgrounds and some of their teachers, plus a larger group of Londoners who were moved by the proceedings even if they did not very often frequent cathedrals.
What took place today was an annual service of thanksgiving, established in recent years to commemorate people who donate their bodies for medical teaching and research. For the families of some donors, it may be the first opportunity they have to acknowledge and celebrate their loved ones in a public setting. The service was in some ways quite conventional, with cosy old Anglican hymns such as "For all the saints, who from their labours rest..." But it also had some original features; medical students walked forward with flowers as a choir sang a "Funeral Ikos" or an anthem by the late Sir John Tavener, a religious composer who converted to Orthodox Christianity and was also interested in Sufism.
For some people, donating their bodies for medical research is a way of telling the world that they do not want a religious ceremony or a funeral of any kind. The donor may be saying, in effect: "Once my body has served its main utilitarian purpose, let it serve one more purpose and then be disposed of quietly and anonymously..." In fact, making a gift to medicine doesn't preclude a dignified or religious act of disposal. As is explained by the London Anatomy Office, which serves the needs of seven medical schools, donated bodies will eventually be released, and loved ones then have a choice: they can either arrange a private funeral themselves, or allow the medical school to conduct an act of cremation at which a chaplain will conduct a short service unless otherwise requested.
Still, for many donors' next of kin, the annual cathedral service seems to offer a welcome chance to say "farewell" and "thanks" in a beautiful and historically resonant place, where a religious community was established nearly a thousand years ago to meet the needs, both spiritual and medical, of both travellers and local people.
