Meet the funeral celebrant: Derek Powell
Meet Derek, one of our humanist funeral celebrants. Derek Powell, already an established humanist naming and wedding celebrant, joins our dedicated team providing humanist funeral and memorial ceremonies for his community in Greenock and across Scotland.
We caught up with Derek to get to know him a bit more and find out what humanism and being a humanist funeral celebrant means to him.
Hello and congratulations Derek! Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background?
Hello! I’ve spent my life walking two paths that might seem totally different on paper. On one hand, I’ve spent my career in education working with disabled students. On the other, I’ve been the lead singer and guitarist for wedding bands.
It sounds like a strange mix. The classroom and the stage, but they are both about connecting with people. I realised early on that I loved engaging with people. I have a passion for hearing about their unique life events and turning them into stories that bring people together. That love of storytelling is what drew me to becoming a celebrant. It started with naming ceremonies and weddings, and it feels like a natural next step and privilege to now be there for families during the final chapter too.
How were you first introduced to humanism and what does it mean to you?
It actually started with my own wedding. When my wife and I were planning our big day, we looked at churches but felt a bit of a disconnect; neither of us are religious, so it just didn’t feel authentic to us.
When we discovered that humanist weddings were an option, everything just clicked. It didn’t feel like I was adopting a new set of complex beliefs; it just felt like I had found a home for the values I had held all along. That kindness, empathy, and human connection are what matter most.
What does being a Humanist funeral celebrant mean to you?
I think it is so important to stand beside families during the difficult times, not just the happy ones. To me, a funeral shouldn’t just be about the loss. It should be a space where family and friends can gather. To share stories, and to really celebrate the mark that person left on the world. It’s about capturing the essence of who they were.
What do you hope to achieve in your role as a funeral celebrant?
My main hope is to bring a sense of comfort. I want families to walk away feeling that, even though their loved one is gone, their legacy isn’t.
As long as we keep saying their name, telling their favourite jokes, and carrying the lessons they taught us, they stay with us. If I can help a family feel that connection, and perhaps even smile at a memory through the tears, then I have done my job.
These Are My Wishes
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Are there any particular poems or readings on the subject of loss which bring you comfort?
There is a passage by Philip Pullman from The Amber Spyglass which I find incredibly moving. It’s a beautiful, almost scientific way of looking at eternity. The idea that our energy never disappears, it just goes back into the world around us.
I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I’ll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again… We’ll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams… And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won’t just be able to take one, they’ll have to take two, one of you and one of me.
Finally, do you have a song that you would like people to remember you by?
If I had to choose a song to be remembered by, it would be ‘Somewhere’ by Runrig. While it touches on the infinite, the song resonates with a humanist ideology. It celebrates the ‘spinning orb of wonder’ we inhabit and the universal cycle of the human experience. The reality that ‘we love, we die.’ Rather than focusing on a specific theology, it asserts that our lives are not ‘ground to dust without meaning’; instead, our significance is found in the ‘gold’ of our relationships and the impact we have on those around us. The song’s message of hope is rooted in this enduring human connection. By promising, ‘somewhere in the light, I’ll meet you there,’ it serves as a metaphor for the way our influence and memory continue to shine in the lives of others. It is a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit and the beautiful, shared journey of being alive. That and Runrig are the best band EVER!
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