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".
New Humanist the arms of the Virgin Mary. In 2005 Caspar Melville took over as managing editor of the magazine and CEO of the Rationalist Association. Daniel Trilling assumed the position of Editor in 2013. New Humanist New Humanist is a quarterly magazine, published by the Rationalist Association in the UK, that focuses on culture, news, philosophy, and science from a sceptical perspective. The "New Humanist" has been in print for 131 years; starting out life as "Watts's Literary Guide", founded by C. A. Watts in November 1885. It later became "The Literary Guide and Rationalist Review" (1894-1954), "Humanist" (1956-1971) and the