Having attended many Wedding, Naming and Funeral Ceremonies over the years, the realisation dawned, that all the ceremonies followed pretty much the same formulae. By merely changing the names of all parties concerned, each ceremony could have been for anyone. This fact was suprising as each event should be meaningful, special and personal to the people concerned and their guests.
All of the above ceremonies also contained a significant element of “religion” and “ritual” despite the fact that at best everyone concerned were inactive in any religion. I looked further in to this phenomenon and found that in the UK (often described as a Christian Country) over 60% of the adult population practised no religion at all, however, in the main people had certain values and morals that could be ascribed to any religion and appear to be normal practice amongst any civilised society.
As an atheist, I then examined the possibility of becoming an Independent Civil Celebrant, where I could help people devise and plan meaningful ceremonies personal to them – without recourse to any religion but keeping some elements of ritual which many people find appealing.
With the above in mind, Ceremony UK was launched in association with the UK Society of Celebrants with the aim of providing a quality selection of like minded Independent Civil Celebrants across the UK, so that people who want bespoke, personal, meaningful ceremonies have a choice.
All practicing UK Society of Celebrants members have all received specialist celebrant training and have access to a wealth of resources to assist them and their clients produce a ceremony to remember (for all the right reasons). Clients may not practice a religion but may have developed an individual spirituality – we endeavour to encompass anyone’s spirituality into our ceremonies but we steer clear of overt religious content / dogma / preaching.
We have found that when people realise they have complete control over their ceremonies, they tend to enjoy the freedom to express themselves with and through their celebrant. This results in their Love ~ Life ~ Loss Events becoming more special than the traditional prescriptive religious versions.
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