Celebrant (Australia) Celebrant (Australia) In Australia, celebrants are people who conduct formal ceremonies in the community, particularly weddings, which are the main ceremony of legal import conducted by celebrants. They may also conduct extra-legal ceremonies such as naming of babies, renewal of wedding vows and funerals. Officiating at a marriage requires that the celebrant be an authorised marriage celebrant under Australian law, but officiating at extra-legal ceremonies does not. Many Western nations permit celebrants who are not clergy to carry out basic, legal, marriage ceremonies. However Australia was the first nation whose government appointed non-clergy celebrants with the specific intention that they
Marriage in New Zealand religious body, a marriage celebrant of an approved organisation, or an independent marriage celebrant. Before 1976 there was growing dissatisfaction with the Marriage Act as it restricted people to choose between a Christian marriage that was usually performed in a church and solemnised by an Officiating Minister, or to a secular marriage in a Registry office where the number of guests was very restricted. From 1973 the Humanist Society of New Zealand lobbied the government for a change to the Marriage Act seeking the right of people to have marriage ceremonies of their choice with a celebrant of their choice