Dressed in black, a family gathers round a grave. Slowly, the coffin is lowered into the ground. One by one, the mourners gather a handful of earth and let it slip through fingers onto the lid of the plain oak box. The minister speaks: ‘…earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ…’. For centuries, this was how Anglican Christians buried their dead.