Funeral celebrant and the director. A celebrant, by this definition, does not come from the standpoint of any doctrinal belief or unbelief. A trained celebrant usually operates professionally on the principle that their own beliefs and values are not relevant. An acknowledged pioneer of civil Celebrancy, Dally Messenger III claims to have officiated at the first funeral celebrant ceremony. This was in the sense that the client sought a service from Messenger, as a government appointed civil celebrant, and as a professional ceremony provider. There had occasionally been secular funeral ceremonies before this date, but they were extremely rare and informal, e.g.
A Secular Humanist Declaration have ominous implications for the future of civilization on this planet." A Secular Humanist Declaration A Secular Humanist Declaration was an argument for and statement of support for democratic secular humanism. The document was issued in 1980 by the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH), now the Council for Secular Humanism (CSH). Compiled by Paul Kurtz, it is largely a restatement of the content of the American Humanist Association's 1973 Humanist Manifesto II, of which he was co-author with Edwin H. Wilson. Both Wilson and Kurtz had served as editors of "The Humanist", from which Kurtz departed in 1979