As we have read in so many of the beautiful tributes that have poured in over the last few days, Jon’s work was ground-breaking and pioneering.  His funeral will be no exception.

The Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London meant a lot to Jon. He gave up a well paid tech job in the late 90’s to become the manager of Jamyang and worked closely with Geshe Tashi, Jamyang’s spiritual teacher with whom he developed a lasting bond.

Geshe Tashi attended Jon and Donna’s wedding and was Jon’s close spiritual adviser throughout his life. Jon had always wanted the Jamyang to host funerals and was working closely with the centre and funeral directors ‘Compassionate Funerals’  to make this possible. In true pioneering nature, Jon’s funeral will be the first ever held at Jamyang.

The funeral will be held on Thursday 6^th July 2017.  Unfortunately, space at the Jamyang Buddhist Centre is limited so attendance is by invitation only. The service will be filmed and extracts will be made available to the wider Buddhist and Death Cafe community initially, and others at a later date. A memorial event will be held in late October, around Jon’s birthday, and everyone who wishes to attend will be able to join together to celebrate his life.

Jamyang Buddhist Centre said “we are delighted to be holding the first ever funeral at Jamyang for Jon Underwood. Holding funerals at Jamyang is a long-standing ambition which Jon was helping us to realise. It could not be more fitting that the first ever funeral we hold is for Jon”

Allistair from Compassionate Funerals said “We are so pleased to support Jon’s family to provide him with the sort of the funeral he would want. We worked closely with Jon around the idea of holding funerals at Jamyang.  Jon’s contribution to the death and dying community was ground breaking, he really challenged us on what it meant to provide a ‘compassionate funeral’ and the services we have developed are all the better because if it.”

Please have Jon, his family and his friends in your thoughts on Thursday. 

A huge thanks to everyone who has been so generous in donating to the JustGiving that has been set up by Jon’s friends at the Good Funeral Guide.  Over £28,000 has been raised in Jon’s memory so far.

If you’d like to donate, you can do so here.