How
to Become a Celebrant
Celebrants play an important role in the life of the
Humanist community. They help us celebrate life's most
important events, and serve as Humanist ambassadors to
the general public. There are many people out there
looking for secular ceremonies and celebrants often
provide them with their first exposure to our movement.
Florida does not currently have enough celebrants to
service our community and interested members of the
public. Prospective new celebrants should s have good
inter personal skills - good empathy is important.
Previous experience of public speaking is not essential,
but would be a major advantage. It will especially suit
someone who is self-employed or retired. So, if you are
a Humanist and are interested in serving your community,
definitely go and get certified.
Certification:
To
become a celebrant, you should be certified. There are
two main organizations that provide celebrant
certification. One is through the American Humanist
Association's Humanist Society, the other is through the
Council for Secular Humanism. Celebrants can also be
certified by the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism,
and the Secular Jewish Humanists.
Since the Humanists of Florida Association is affiliated
with the American Humanist Association, the information
below pertains to their certification process. The link
below is to AHA's celebrant website.
http://www.humanist-society.org/celebrants/inquiry.html
Legal Information:
If
you want to perform legal weddings, then once you
receive certification from one of these organizations,
you must then register with your local county in order
to be able to perform legal weddings there. In Florida,
notaries are able to perform legal weddings, plus, they
can help notarize wills, powers of attorney etc. So, if
you want to be a celebrant in Florida, we encourage you
to become a notary as well.
Training:
The British Humanist Association publishes books on how
to design and write ceremonies. They have several books
focusing on baby namings, weddings, funerals, etc.
http://www.humanism.org.uk/site/shop/default.asp?id=159&parent=403&root=403&level=1&cat=403
Another resource for
training to become a celebrant is Hugh Hill, a Scottish
Celebrant, who has created a celebrant training manual
and conducts celebrant trainings. Many of Florida's
newest celebrants were trained by him. Contact Hugh at:
ca89002@lineone.net The manual is published through
the "Secular Fellowship" whose mission is to do good
works in the community and provide secular education
where needed and provides free distance learning via the
web. His manual is available to Humanists only for $38
US plus $18 US shipping costs.
