AN official opening ceremony has been held at the Sedgemoor Crematorium.

Guests attended the service for the facility near Pawlett which has actually been open since October last year and has dealt with over 500 funerals.

The service was led by the Rt Rev Peter Maurice, Bishop of Taunton, and representatives from across a range of beliefs and faiths participated with readings from the Rev Robin Hutt, former Methodist minister at Pawlett, and Roy Haylings and Sarah Thomas, two secular officiates who read
from the Rebecca Notebook by Daphne Du Maurier.

They were joined by Fr Peter Hawkins, of St Teresa’s Roman Catholic Church, Taunton, who gave a prayer of thanksgiving and healing alongside a prayer from the Rev Graham Witts, vicar of Burnham.

The Rev Doris Goddard, who performed the first funeral at the crematorium last year, read a passage from the Bible entitled ‘Love is stronger than death’.

Nigel Gillard, of Bridgwater Funeral Services, said of the crematorium: “It’s so much more convenient and, more importantly, it takes away a huge amount of stress and anxiety from families we look after as they don’t have to travel to crematoria further afield.”