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".
Celebrant (Australia) is either chosen or created by the couple, it can be affirmed as honest and authentic. Or to give an American perspective on marriage which illustrates a reformed view of civil marriage we need only quote the New Jersey civil marriage celebrant Gerald Fierst: A wedding ceremony is a crossroad where two life stories intersect. A wedding ceremony takes the two lives that the individuals have travelled and transforms them into a single path upon which each life embarks, starting over. A wedding ceremony acknowledges the turning point, the choice to go on. It's the setting off on life's journey