Ceremonies

Yesterday, our Celebrant David Mitchell conducted a Humanist funeral for Kate Wasyluk, one of the victims of Scott Nicholls, whose car struck Kate and her friends Emma (who was also killed) and Rebecca Harold, who were walking home from an evening out on 21 February. Nicholls has been charged with dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, and driving without a licence.

Nearly 300 mourners attended the funeral at Ipswich Crematorium, where David described the incident as “utterly pointless, utterly random, utterly wasteful”.

Old news, but still good news. Can you imagine having a similar event here?

In Norway this spring (2007) over 10.000 youths aged 15 celebrated their Humanist confirmation. Keeping up a more than 50 years tradition they meet in concert halls and medieval castles, municipal cinemas and cultural centres, city halls and community houses. They gather in bigger and smaller towns all over the country.

We used to conduct gay weddings in Suffolk – by “we”, I mean our Ceremonies Team. When they introduced legal partnership ceremonies, the demand for Humanist ceremonies ceased abruptly. Now it looks like civil ceremonies are losing popularity too.

The number of gay weddings has plummeted by more than 50 per cent in the past year. Civil partnerships became legal for homosexuals in December 2005, allowing them to acquire the same sorts of tax and pension rights as straight married couples.

Not many people realise that you don’t have to have a celebrant (sometimes called an officiant) to conduct a funeral. There isn’t a law that says you have to have a funeral at all, but if you do have one, anyone can conduct it.

As Humanist weddings aren’t legally recognised in England and Wales (though they are in Scotland, if conducted by an officially recognised celebrant), anyone can conduct them. The same applies to baby-namings.

I’ve been ordained. It’s free, it’s easy, it’s quick. Just go to The Universal Life Church Monastery and with a few clicks of the mouse, you can be ordained too. Once ordained, there’s a range of impressive-looking products to help you perform your ministerial duties, including certificates from $10.50, to a ministry-in-a-box for $139.99.

When funerals were all (or almost all) conducted by clergy, at least you knew what you'd be getting: a load of old cobblers about being with Jesus and anyone who'd pre-deceased the deceased; the Lord's Prayer; two or three dreary hymns; and so on. Many clergy did the same funeral for everyone. Some even forgot whose funeral they were doing and got the name wrong. It was all very predictable and irrelevant.

From the newsletter for funeral directors and others, summer 2007.