Early history
A senator, attorney-general and High Court Justice of Australia, Lionel Murphy was the founder of modern celebrancy. He had a very clear ideal that secular people were entitled to ceremonies of equal meaning, dignity and substance as those enjoyed by religious people. Murphy's vision, more carefully articulated as the program progressed, included training standards and a limit on the number of celebrants to be registered. Celebrants were to be mentored (later trained) to the highest standard. They were only yo be appointed when there was an actual demand. The deeper meaning of the Murphy ideal was to improve the individual psychologically, and the community socially and culturally through ceremonies. Celebrancy, celebrants and their ceremonies were clearly distinguished from past practice by Murphy's reforms: * Control of ceremony was to be by the client, but advised and resourced by the celebrant. The marriage ceremony for example, up to this point, was that mandated by the religious or civil authority - resulting in constant complaints of hypocrisy and inappropriateness. Couples in celebrant ceremonies were now to be totally in charge of the words, content and style of their own ceremony. * A radical change was the appointment of women, at a moment in history when, for hundreds of years, the only ceremony providers were men. (Paradoxically this Murphy decision is commonly acknowledged as having substantially supported the women in the churches who wished to become priests and bishops.) * He also appointed Australian aborigines as civil celebrants. Faith Bandler was one. (This was particularly significant in that the aborigines had only been counted as humans in the census some six years before.) * Another change of direction was the appointment of young people to do ceremonies. Lois D’Arcy, the first celebrant appointed, was a 26 year old mother of two babies. Carol Ditchburn, now Astbury, was 24 when appointed. * His next was that citizens could choose their own celebrant— unheard of until then, both with church and with state. * His radical assertion, a now obvious truth but still not fully absorbed, was that celebrating the milestones of life was just as important for secular people as it was for religious people. * Another new freedom was Murphy's radical insert into the Australian Marriage Act 1961 are the words. "A marriage may be solemnised on any day, at any time and at any place." * His conviction that culture matters —for everyone. 2Training of celebrants
Ideally, a celebrant needs to have a range of knowledge, attitudes and skills. A grounding in the arts appears to be essential. Ceremonies are composed of the performing and visual arts. Poetry, prose quotations and music are necessary components of most ceremonies. As the celebrant is a resource person and advisor to his/her clients, a transforming education in the arts and humanities would appear to be a prerequisite. Civil celebrant skill is to creatively combine appropriate poetry, prose, music, choreography and movement, storytelling, myth and symbolism into a ceremony of substance and power. Story-telling is basic to most ceremonies. The personal story of the development of a couple's relationship in a marriage, or a eulogy or panegyric at a funeral ceremony, or the expression of a parent's hopes or dreams in a Naming ceremony not only require research and verification but a considerable skill in creative writing in sync with the theme and purpose of the ceremony. There are a number of prosaic skills and resources for which the celebrant is responsible. Australian law requires that every guest must be able to hear the words and music of a celebrant ceremony. Ceremonic celebrations occur in all sorts of places. Portable PA (Celebrancy program setbacks in Australia
Unfortunately, the many good years of celebrancy all changed dramatically when the market was opened up for any number of training colleges to train as many celebrants as they could (1 September 2003). So much that now (post 2003-2022) there is a disproportionate over-supply of celebrants in Australia. What was once a prestigious full time role for many, can now only ever be a part-time hobby. In Australia this oversupply of celebrants also led to fierce and unbecoming competition among celebrants and a predictable decline in standards. Australia's leadership role and prestige throughout the Western world declined.United States
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 aSecular spirituality
Messenger maintained that even though celebrant ceremonies were non-religious it was important that they express a person or couple's "spiritual" beliefs and qualities. The US has a wide variety of religions and inter-faith bodies and independent inter-faith ministers. Civil celebrants have taken their place between the dogmatic and non-dogmatic religions and the avowedly atheistic Humanist society stance on ceremonies. In the loose American system, which includes theEurope
In some European countries a celebrant who is not 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 many years. Churches have never given any authority to conduct legal marriages. In these European countries where marriages can only be conducted at a government registry office, it is acceptable for couples to have a second personalised non-legal wedding ceremony with family and friends conducted by a lay celebrant.New Zealand
New Zealand followed Australia in 1976 with civil celebrants authorised by government. Government administration is praised by celebrants and citizens alike as encouraging high quality ceremonies and striking the right ratio of celebrants to the population.United Kingdom, Ireland, Scotland and Canada
In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Scotland and Canada there are, as of 2021, private training colleges which are educating civil celebrants following the Australian model. These colleges and their professional associations have emerged to provide accreditation and to set and uphold standards. Some lobby their governments for registration of their graduates to conduct legal marriages.See also
* Celebrant (Australia) - the civil celebrant movement began in Australia in 1973 and there established its basic principles. *External links
References
{{Reflist Marriage Ceremonies Humanism