"Many people assume that, when they die, there will have to be a priest or vicar involved," he says.

This has never been a legal requirement but now, he adds, "more people are waking up to the fact".

Matthew is a Humanist 'minister', one of six covering Sheffield and South Yorkshire, and says interest in non-religious funerals is growing.

"There's been a sudden surge in demand over the last few years. We're getting around ten calls a week now, whereas it was only about three or four a week a couple of years ago."

Originally from Exeter, Matthew was brought up at a staunchly religious school, and rebelled as a teenager.

"I've been an atheist since the age of 13," he says, proudly. "In the 1960s, I couldn't square what I saw around me with the belief in a loving God."

He reflects that he's probably always been a Humanist, but didn't know about the movement until his later years.

He explains that you have to be an atheist to be a Humanist, and a Humanist believes in the potential of humans, that the problems of the world can be solved by humans.

"But I suppose if you ask an atheist what happens when you die, they'd say, that's it. Whereas we would say, well, the person is dead, but what they were like, and how they affected others, lives on in the memories of everyone who lives on."

Matthew moved to Sheffield to study at Sheffield University, then taught English and communication studies for 13 years at Richmond College.

He then moved into management and became a senior officer in the education department in Sheffield, then director of education at Doncaster Council, before leaving seven years ago to become a psychotherapist.

"I was fed up telling people what to do. I'd rather listen to people and help them work out their own solutions."

His move into the Humanist 'ministry' came when attending a funeral for a friend 10 years ago, officiated by a Humanist celebrant, Ann Granvllle, now one of Mathew's colleagues.

"My friend had actually drunk himself to death, and as she talked Ann told the truth about him, and I thought it was a wonderful way to come to terms with what I thought about him."

He decided to take up the training as a Humanist celebrant himself, and hasn't regretted it.

"I think it's really important that people have a choice at a funeral, and for me I think it's incredibly rewarding work."

The process begins when a family tells their funeral director that their loved one wasn't religious, and sometimes the funeral director will direct the family to the Humanist ministers based in Sheffield (Or, as Matthew suggests, it's worth indicating your funeral preference in your will).

One of the six Sheffield ministers then visits the family and spends several hours talking to them to learn about the person who's died.

"Very often," says Matthew, "that conversation helps the family hugely in their grieving process. They get the chance to open up about all their feelings, and to take stock.

We're often told that was the first time ever they've really sat down and talked for so long about someone's life and what they were like."

The minister then writes a draft of the funeral ceremony, and emails it to the family, or reads it out over the phone for approval.

The advantage of the Humanist funeral, says Matthew, is that due to the lack of prayers and hymns, more time can be spent talking about the deceased.

He concedes that the best religious celebrants try to do the same thing, but they still have to find time for the religious aspects too.

At the service, Matthew never wears black ("I'm not the one in mourning"), and often has to field enquires about who he is. "They often think I'm a long lost cousin or something."

The process of visits and interviews and writing up the 'biography' takes many hours. "No one becomes a Humanist minister for the money," Matthew laughs.

The celebration of the life of the deceased is often very moving, and he says he's had Christian ministers complimenting him after hearing the service.

And he makes sure that religious members of the congregation aren't excluded by including time for prayer or silent contemplation.

Matthew's Broomhill study is full of notes taken from his interviews, which when written up into the eulogy are presented to the deceased's family after the service.

There's a place for laughter in the eulogy, says Matthew, but the ceremonies are always serious.

Among the computers and notes are the books one might expect by atheist evangelicals Dawkins and Hitchers, plus a less philosophical work by one Neil Warnock.

Matthew is a long term Sheffield United season ticket holder – even atheist Humanists need a bit of blind faith sometimes, it seems.

British Humanist Association: www.humanism.org.uk

Contact: Matthew Simpson 0114 2661573/07957 536248 or email matthew@mjsimpson.plus.com