Celebrancy
Celebrancy is an industry founded in Australia in the 1970's to provide government registered agents to officiate at ceremonies, previously reserved in law to clergy or officers of the Births, Deaths & Marriages registry office. These agents, referred in the Marriage Act of Australia as "civil celebrants", create & conduct weddings, funerals, and other life ceremonies for those who do not wish to be married in a church or registry office. A celebrant who isn't registered to conduct legal marriages but who is active in the business profession of conducting non-legal wedding ceremonies is known as a "lay celebrant". Lay celebrants have been a way of life in many European countries for as long as people can remember, where Churches were never given any authority to conduct legal marriages. In the European countries where marriages can only be conducted at a government registry office, it is acceptable for couples to have a 2nd meaningful and personalised non-legal wedding ceremony with family and friends conducted by a lay celebrant. It is not likely that this will ever change any time soon, as marriages have been conducted in this way for so long that their system works very well. However in some English speaking countries there are now private training colleges who are training large numbers of lay celebrants each year in order to create a perceived demand. Those colleges have also formed their own professional associations for the purpose of providing accreditation for their graduates, and also to lobby the government indpendently of the training college for registration of their graduates to conduct legal marriages. It is not known if they will ever be successful because the government places a higher importance on the people's well-being before commercial gain, so they don't wish to see an increase in staged and gimmicky weddings, or the increase in divorce rates which many believe will inevitably follow.
Background
Civil Celebrancy began in Australia in the 1970s due to the initiative of the Australian statesman and Attorney-General Lionel Murphy in 1973. He had very clear ideas on how secular people were entitled to ceremonies of equal dignity and substance as those enjoyed by religious people.[1] Murphy's vision included strict training standards and a limit on the number of celebrants to be registered to ensure that celebrants were not only trained to the highest standard but only trained when there was an actual demand. The Murphy ideal for civil celebrants includes skill in combining poetry, prose, music, choreography and movement, storytelling and symbolism into ceremonies of substance and power.[2] This worked very well for the golden years of celebrancy until it all changed dramatically when the market was opened up for any number of training colleges to train as many celebrants as they could. So much that now there is an disproportionate over-supply of celebrants in Australia, so much that what was once a prestigious full time role for many can now only ever be a part-time hobby income. In Australia this oversupply of celebrants prompted the government to introduct to celebrants the additional role of registry office staff by logging in to the government portal to register both the notification of intended marriage form, and the registration of the marriage after it has been conducted.
In the United States, however, clergy (and in some jurisdictions, the couple itself, in a self-uniting marriage,) perform legally binding weddings. However, weddings in the United states are also performed by an officer of the court, such as a judge or a justice of the peace.[3]
To meet these needs of couples wishing to have a spiritual ceremony, various faith and belief bodies arose around the world to register interfaith "ministers" to formulate and officiate at such rites. This system is working very well as the new age movement and need for connection to spirituality fuels the demand for spiritual but non-religious ceremonies across the globe. A number of Secular bodies having a variety of non-theistic beliefs, such as the atheist humanist movement have also registered their celebrants and ministers to conduct legal marriages. In order to meet the demands of society, many churches and religions have now adopted inclusive interfaith principles and philosophy and will also marry couples with a customised ceremony for those with no religious belief. (e.g. the Unitarian Universalist Association) [4] The secular celebrant movement spread to the United States, where in 2005 Richard Pryor was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in a non-religious service led by a secular funeral celebrant.[5] It is expected that the demand for Secular, spiritual and interfaith marriage ceremonies will continue to grow as modern couples seek to have a non-church wedding. It is expected that in time we will see many more Secular, spiritual and interfaith organisations appearing around the globe to meet the demand for secular, spiritual and interfaith legal marriage ceremonies.
See also
References
- ^ Messenger III, Dally (2012), Murphy's Law and the Pursuit of Happiness: a History of the Civil Celebrant Movement, Spectrum Publications, Melbourne (Australia), ISBN 978-0-86786-169-3 p.41ff
- ^ Dally Messenger III. "The Power of an Idea". International College of Celebrancy. Retrieved 2014-01-11.
- ^ See for example "Arizona Revised Statutes: 25-124. Persons authorized to perform marriage ceremony; definition". Retrieved 2008-05-30.
- ^ Birkbeck, Matt (2001-08-01). "Ceremonies For Any Occasion". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
- ^ "Richard Pryor Got the Last Laugh at His Celebrant Funeral Service". newswise. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
External links
- International College of Celebrancy website
- Celebrant USA Foundation & Institute website
- Academy of Celebrancy (Australia) website