Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 — To Every Thing There Is a Season

Why families choose it

The reading families reach for when the congregation will include many who hold no faith, because it asks nothing of anyone except honesty: there is a time to be born, and a time to die, and this is the second. It comforts by placement rather than promise — grief is set among the ordinary seasons of a life, not outside them. And it is truthful enough to put mourning and dancing in one breath, which is what a funeral for a well-loved life actually contains.

Reading it aloud

The structure does the work: fourteen pairs, each one swing of the pendulum. Read at the pace of a slow walk and keep the rhythm strictly regular — the regularity is the comfort. Do not lean on ‘a time to die’, and do not soften it; it must take the same weight as every other time, because that is the passage’s whole argument. End cleanly on ‘a time of peace’.

In the programme, list it in the order of service as “Scripture Reading — Ecclesiastes 3:1–8” with the reader’s name beside it. The full text is public domain and may be printed on the life-story or back page.