Funeral celebrant out for commentary two celebrants he considered outstanding, Brian McInerney and Rick Barclay. International acknowledgment was provided by a comprehensive article in Time Magazine (September 2004) reporting that in the "liberal" cities of Melbourne (Australia) and Auckland (New Zealand) civil celebrants "conduct substantially more than half of the funerals." It reported that before 1973 only clergy funerals were available to the general public in Australia and New Zealand. The article describes celebrant funerals as "intimate and personalised". But it also cited an alternative point of view by atheist sociologist Mira Crouch who stated that celebrant funerals were "mawkish and sentimental".
Modern Times School Modern Times School Modern Times School, also known as District 12 School and Brentwood School, is a historic school building located at Brentwood in Suffolk County, New York. The school building was built in 1857 and was originally a small, one story, frame octagonal building sheathed in board and batten siding and surmounted by a hipped roof with octagonal cupola. It featured a rectangular projecting entrance portico surmounted by a gable roof. It has been moved twice, altered, and suffered significant deterioration. It was converted for residential use in 1907 to make room for a larger schoolhouse and was moved