VICARS fear organists will be phased out of services at Oxford crematorium after its owners revealed plans to install a new sound system.

The owners of the crematorium, Dignity Funeral Services, are set to install a Wesley Music System to download music for the chapel in Bayswater Road, Barton, at a cost of £6,000 per year.

The move has angered ministers in Oxford who claim that skilled live musicians will be replaced in services by a “karaoke machine”.

The Rev Jonathan Sewell of St Mary’s Church in Barton said: “A good organist is a vital component of a well-ordered and dignified funeral service.

“This cost-cutting measure is an insult to grieving families and a hindrance to producing an appropriate, respectful service to honour the deceased.

“Whilst there is a place for recorded music at a funeral and CDs are frequently requested, nothing can replace the skill and flexibility of a live musician to bring dignity to this most sensitive of occasions.”

Mr Sewell, 48, who gives services about three times a week at the crematorium, said he would refuse to do a service with the Wesley Music System and would make sure an organist was booked.

Of the 2,500 services carried out at the crematorium over the last 12 months, Dignity estimated more than half involved an organist with the rest relying on recorded music.

Canon Anthony Ellis, area dean of Oxford, said: “I fear there will be a lot fewer services with organists if they bring this in.

“What they’ll offer first is the karaoke machine and I think they will want to do that to justify its inclusion and its cost.

“I will give it a chance but I think most clergy I have spoken to are very uneasy about it.”

The makers of the system, now installed in more than 100 chapels nationally, said they invented it to overcome problems caused by people forgetting their relative’s favourite tape, bringing scratched CDs or copies which do not play.

They deny their product, which can play any downloadable song, is a karaoke machine as the hymns it plays were recorded in a church with a full pipe organ and a small church choir.

Co-director Alan Jeffrey said: “I understand the concerns, but our growth is all happening by recommendation.

“I think fewer organists are being used universally, but it’s nothing to do with what we have or haven’t got. The public taste is changing.

“I know in my heart that every single day someone’s got something slightly better than they might have had at a service because we’ve taken the trouble to do what we do.”

Dignity Funeral Services spokesman Stuart Cox said: “We are planning to add a state-of-the-art music system, the Wesley Music System, to the options at Oxford Crematorium.

“The fees will remain the same and we will continue to provide an organ and organist for those families that want to choose this service at no extra cost.”

cwalker@oxfordmail.co.uk