Funeral celebrant Funeral celebrant Funeral celebrant is a formal term denoting members of a group of non-clergy professionals who are committed to preparing and delivering high quality funeral ceremonies, which are not closely linked to any religion or to belief in an after-life. The concept of funeral celebrants is analogous in Western countries to that of civil celebrants (for marriages). It began in Australia in 1975. On 19 July 1973 the Australian attorney-general Lionel Murphy had appointed civil marriage celebrants with the aim of creating ceremonies of substance and meaning for non-church people. As secular (civil) marriage ceremonies became accepted, first in
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