Services Bereavement Support About David FAQs Get in Touch
Funeral Celebrant · Bereavement Support

A ceremony as unique as
the life it honours.

Personal, carefully crafted funeral ceremonies and compassionate bereavement support — conducted with grace, dignity, and genuine pastoral care. Religious or non-religious. Tailored to the people at the heart of them.

Get in Touch Our Services
"Every life tells a story worth honouring."
15+
years of pastoral ministry
and bereavement care
Both
religious and non-religious
services conducted
100%
bespoke — every ceremony
written from scratch
What We Offer
🕊️
Funeral
Celebrant

Personal, carefully crafted funeral and memorial services — religious or non-religious — built around the unique story of the person you have loved and lost. David brings genuine pastoral depth to every ceremony.

from £244
Full ceremony — family meeting, script, delivery
Enquire About a Funeral
🌿
Bereavement
Support

A confidential, safe space to process loss at your own pace — whether the funeral was last week or last year. Open to anyone regardless of faith. Informed by counselling training and pastoral experience.

from £50 / session
Initial 30-minute conversation always free
Find Out More
Bereavement Support

Support beyond
the ceremony.

Grief does not end when the ceremony does. For many people, the hardest part begins after the funeral — when the cards stop coming, the visitors go home, and the weight of loss becomes a daily companion.

"He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds."Psalm 147:3

Bereavement support at Threshold Ceremonies offers a confidential, unhurried space to process loss at your own pace — held with genuine warmth, without judgement, and without any agenda beyond your wellbeing. Drawing on pastoral ministry and counselling training, David provides a safe and skilled space for grief in all its forms.

This support is open to anyone, regardless of faith or background — whether David conducted the funeral or not.

Pricing
Initial 30-minute conversation — Free, no obligation
Individual session (60 min) — from £50
Block of 6 sessions — from £270 (saving £30)
A sliding scale is available for those in genuine financial difficulty. Please enquire.
Book a Free Conversation Enquire About Sessions
A safe space to process loss
One-to-one sessions offering a confidential, structured space to bring your grief — whatever it looks like. Held online or in person in Warrington. Sessions run 60 minutes and are available weekly, fortnightly, or at whatever pace feels right. The initial conversation is always free.
No faith requirement
You do not need to be religious to receive bereavement support here. Whether your loss was last week or several years ago, whether you have a faith background or none — this is a space for anyone who is grieving and would value someone to walk alongside them.
Beyond the immediate aftermath
Many people find that grief intensifies weeks or months after a loss, once the initial support of family and friends has faded. Bereavement support is available for the longer journey — not just the immediate days after a funeral. Individual sessions or ongoing packages available.
Support for churches and organisations
When a congregation, workplace, or community loses someone significant, collective grief can be complex and difficult to navigate. David offers pastoral support for leadership teams and communities dealing with shared loss — helping people grieve together and care for one another well.
What sets Threshold apart

An ordained minister
who serves everyone.

Most secular celebrants have no theological formation, no pastoral training, and no experience sitting with families in genuine grief. Most church ministers will not conduct non-religious services. David sits in a rare and valuable middle ground.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."Matthew 5:4

Whether your family has deep faith, no faith, or something in between — you will be received with equal care, genuine respect, and no agenda beyond honouring the person you have loved and lost.

Ordained Assemblies of God Minister
Over 20 years of senior pastoral ministry — conducting funerals and memorial services across the UK and internationally. He knows what families need because he has walked beside countless families through loss.
Trained in Pastoral Counselling
Holding a Level 4 Diploma in Counselling Therapy, David brings genuine therapeutic understanding to bereavement support — far beyond what most celebrants can offer.
Genuinely inclusive
Religious or non-religious, traditional or contemporary, simple or elaborate — David conducts every ceremony with the same care, dignity, and personal attention.
Deeply personal preparation
Every ceremony is built around the unique story of the person being honoured. David brings his own developed pastoral voice, illustrations, and experience to every service — while the life story, the readings, the music, and the personal tributes are specific to your family and your loved one alone.
What We Offer

Ceremonies for life's
most significant moments.

🕊️
Primary Service
Funeral & Memorial Services

A deeply personal, carefully crafted ceremony that truly reflects the life of the person who has died. Conducted at the crematorium, graveside, or any location that holds meaning for your family.

Religious or non-religious — entirely your choice
Thorough family meeting to gather the life story
Ceremony script built around your loved one
Celebration of life and memorial services
Scattering of ashes ceremonies
Available throughout Warrington and the North West
From £244
Full fee includes family meeting, ceremony script and delivery
How It Works

Simple, caring,
and entirely personal.

I
Get in Touch
A brief, no-obligation conversation — by phone, email, or the contact form — to discuss your needs and check availability.
II
Family Meeting
A relaxed, unhurried meeting to hear the story of your loved one — their character, their humour, their faith, their life. This is the heart of everything.
III
Your Ceremony
A ceremony script built around your loved one's unique story — shared with you in advance for review, and shaped by David's years of pastoral experience and ceremony craft.
IV
The Day
A ceremony delivered with warmth, dignity, and genuine care — exactly as you wished, honouring the person you love.
About David

Someone who understands
what this moment means.

David Akerman — Threshold Ceremonies
David Akerman
BA (Hons) · MTh. Contextual Theology (University of Oxford) · Level 4 Diploma in Counselling Therapy
Assemblies of God — Ordained Minister Funeral Celebrant Trained Pastoral Counsellor Bereavement Support
"I have sat with families in their most devastating moments. I know that what people need at a funeral is not a performance — it is the feeling that the person they loved was truly seen, and truly honoured."

David is an Assemblies of God ordained minister with twenty years of senior pastoral experience — conducting funerals and memorial services across the UK and internationally, including three years as Senior Pastor of an international church on the French Riviera. He has sat with countless families through bereavement, sudden loss, long illness, and grief in all its forms.

Alongside his ministerial experience, David holds a Level 4 Diploma in Counselling Therapy from Waverley Abbey College and a Master of Theology in Contextual Theology from the University of Oxford — bringing genuine therapeutic depth and academic rigour to both ceremony and bereavement support.

David conducts both religious and non-religious ceremonies with equal care and respect. He is based in Warrington, Cheshire, and serves families throughout the North West.

Get in Touch
Common Questions

Everything you need
to know.

Absolutely. David conducts both religious and non-religious ceremonies with equal warmth and care. A non-religious funeral can still be deeply meaningful, beautifully personal, and genuinely comforting — it simply focuses on the life lived and the love shared, without reference to faith. Many families find this exactly what they need.
Most humanist celebrants come from a secular background with no pastoral or ministerial formation. David is an ordained minister with fifteen years of pastoral experience and formal counselling training — which means he brings a depth of care, an understanding of grief, and a quality of presence that is genuinely distinctive. He is not promoting any faith agenda at a non-religious service — he simply brings far more pastoral experience than most celebrants to every ceremony he conducts.
David will always do his best to be available for families at short notice. Please contact him as soon as possible so he can confirm availability and begin the preparation process. Funerals are always treated as the absolute priority.
Yes — David works with funeral directors across the North West and is happy to be recommended by or referred through any funeral director. Families can also contact David directly, without going through a funeral director, if they prefer.
Bereavement support is a series of pastoral conversations — online or in person in Warrington — for individuals or families navigating grief. It is not clinical counselling, but it draws on David's counselling training and extensive pastoral experience to provide genuine, compassionate, and sustained support. It is available to anyone regardless of faith background, and there is no pressure or obligation to discuss faith or religion.
Get in Touch

We are here
whenever you are ready.

There is no wrong time to reach out. Whether you are planning ahead, have recently been bereaved, or simply want to ask a question — please get in touch. All enquiries are handled with warmth and complete discretion.

✉
☎
Telephone
07397 851172
◎
Location
Warrington, Cheshire
Serving the wider North West
◷
Response
All enquiries responded to within a few hours. For urgent funeral enquiries, please call directly.
Services at a glance
Funeral & memorial ceremony — from £244
Bereavement support — from £50 / session
Initial conversation — Free
Send a Message
Please share as much or as little as you feel comfortable with at this stage. There is no wrong way to begin this conversation.

🔒 All enquiries are handled with complete care and discretion.