Coffin Club’s been on a journey… and somewhat ironically, met itself coming back.
What started as small, slightly scrappy, in-person conversations about death, dying and funerals grew arms and legs. We created resources. Then courses. Then Zoom sessions. Then celebrant training. And somewhere along the way, the edges blurred.
So we made a decision.
Our celebrant training now lives fully over at Match and Dispatch so that Coffin Club can return properly to its not-for-profit ethos roots.
Here’s why that matters.
Why Separate Them?
Because they are, quite simply, different things.
Match and Dispatch is about training professional celebrants – not just for funerals, but for weddings too (which was another nudge in this direction). It’s about building sustainable businesses, understanding marketing, creating proper websites, working with clients, and supporting people who want to become celebrants as a genuine professional path.
Coffin Club, on the other hand, is about funeral education. It’s about death literacy, knowing your rights, exploring your options and talking about death before you absolutely have to.
When the two sat too closely together, the water got muddy.
People would come along and quite reasonably wonder: are we here to train? Are we here to educate? Is this a business? Is this community?
The honest answer was “a bit of everything,” which isn’t actually very clear or helpful.
So we’ve untangled it.
What Coffin Club Is (And Always Was)
Coffin Club exists to make talking about death normal.
Not dramatic. Not morbid. Not obsessed. Just informed.
We don’t want people becoming freakishly death-focused. We want them to understand their choices.
To know that you can keep a body at home if you want to. That you can organise a funeral yourself. That you have more options than you’ve probably been told. That you don’t have to be completely blindsided at the worst moment of your life.
It’s about making things easier for the people you love.
And crucially – it’s not about turning you into a celebrant.
Why This Matters
When something has a not-for-profit ethos, it needs to stay clean in its purpose.
Coffin Club isn’t here to funnel people into training. It isn’t here to grow into a shiny empire. It’s here to share information simply, make resources accessible, help people plan ahead and gently raise the general level of death literacy in the UK.
That clarity matters. Especially when you’re dealing with something as emotionally loaded as death.
People need to know where they stand.
What Happens Now?
If you want to become a celebrant, train professionally and build a ceremony business, you head over to Match and Dispatch.
If you want to understand funerals better, plan your own, run a Coffin Club, or simply feel less frightened of the practicalities, you stay right here.
No muddying.
No crossover confusion.
No blurring.
Just two projects doing what they each do best.
Back to Our Roots
The early Coffin Clubs were simple. A kettle. Some biscuits. Honest conversation around a table. (There were quite a few coffins, too, but that’s another story!)
That’s the spirit we’re protecting.
Yes, we’ve built online resources. Yes, we’ve made it easier for people to run a club in their own community. Yes, we’ve created clear guides so you don’t have to trawl the internet at 2am in a panic, when someone dies.
But the heart of it remains the same: ordinary people becoming more comfortable talking about death.
That’s it.
And honestly?
It feels good to have it clear again.
If you’ve ever wondered where Coffin Club sits now, that’s your answer.
Right back where it belongs
