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".
Humanist Association of Ireland to a pilot programme called "Goodness me, Goodness you" on the grounds that it separated children into believers and non-believers at an early age. They said that faith classes should take place outside school hours. Humanist Association of Ireland The Humanist Association of Ireland (HAI) is an Irish secular humanist organisation that was founded in 1993 to promote Humanism, which they describe as: an ethical philosophy of life, based on a concern for humanity in general, and for human individuals in particular. This view of life combines reason with compassion. It is for those people who base their interpretation of