The Reverend Richard Coles confessed to ‘breaking the law’ by placing the ashes of pets inside their owners’ coffins.
The former preacher artfully distracted undertakers before slipping an urn containing an animal’s remains next to their owner.
Giving a talk at the Hay Literary Festival, Mr Coles explained: ‘It is illegal to bury a dog’s ashes with a body.
‘The reason is that there are different jurisdictions over the disposal of remains. Human remains are one thing, and all other remains another thing.’
Mr Coles recalled how his sleight of hand began by confirming that the deceased’s coffin was not screwed down.
‘So I would quite often go to the undertaker – I can’t tell you this, I am breaking the law – with the dog’s ashes and say, “Have you screwed down Mrs Haversedge?”
‘And they’d say, “Not yet”, and I’d say, “Look at that bird!”‘, he said.
Now retired, Mr Coles said he would carry out the final wishes of parishioners while he served his ministry at St Mary the Virgin in Finedon, Northamptonshire from 2011-2022.
The Reverend Richard Coles with his two dogs Daisy and Pongo at St. Mary’s Church, Finedon
Mr Coles 64, justified his breach of burial laws by arguing, ‘There is a wideness to God’s mercy like the wideness of the sea, and it’s our job to live in accordance with that.’
Who can be buried on holy ground is a debated matter within the church.
For centuries, suicides and the unbaptised were not allowed to be buried in graveyards.
Recently many vicars have unofficially ignored religious rulings on the subject and argued that mercy should come before doctrine.
‘I know that my predecessors didn’t really care. They would extend mercy, because there are no limits to God’s mercy,’ Mr Coles added, in the talk first reported by the Telegraph.
Mr Coles is the author of Canon Clement Mysteries, a series of crime novels, with a religious setting.
