The International Anglican Liturgical Consultation (IALC) has since 1985 brought together liturgists from around the worldwide Anglican Communion to ref lect together on common issues, and to assist their respective provinces to stay broadly in line with each other in decades of liturgical revision and renewal. The Consultations have been held in different parts of the world at two- or four-year intervals, and have furthered their own purposes byagreeing Statements on the themes they have considered. Thus they have publishedgroundbreaking Statements on inculturation of the liturgy, on initiation, on the Eucharist,and on ordination.IALC-8, meeting at Palermo in Sicily in 2007, worked on Rites surrounding Death. The 53 participants worked for the inside of a week, and then reckoned that, although their drafting was very nearly sufficiently worded for publication, yet it was in some need of further re-touching and integrating. Thus the international Steering Committee askedthree scholars to edit the draft, and this, when completed, became in principle thePalermo Statement. As, however, the original Consultation could not be convened to agreeit, and as the next two Consultations had other urgent tasks to address, the SteeringCommittee then commissioned Trevor Lloyd, one of the three editors, to takeresponsibility for the further editorial work of bringing the Statement to publication withan Introduction and Commentary. This Study thus presents his work in fulfilling thischarge. The Statement itself is strongly pastoral in its style, for the participants at Palermorecognized from the outset the extraordinary combination of requirements in a Christianfuneral - objectively setting out Christs victory over death, yet sensitively meetingmourners at a great point of emotional and spiritual need.Trevor Lloyd has been for more than 40 years among the leaders of liturgical revision in theChurch of England, being one of the originators of Grove Booklets on Worshi
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