Celebrant (Australia) celebrancy was established by the Australian Commonwealth Attorney General Lionel Murphy on 19 July 1973, when his first appointee, Mrs Lois D'Arcy, was categorised as a Civil Marriage Celebrant. Later, as civil marriage celebrants branched out into the performance of other ceremonies such as Funerals and Namings the term was shortened to Civil Celebrant. According to civil celebrant Dally Messenger III: The civil celebrant program is almost entirely the result of one man's vision. Murphy himself told me the story of how he was opposed by his own staff, the public service, his fellow members of parliament and officials of
The Humanist Institute thought. In 2014, the Institute launched onsite training programs in conjunction with the Humanist Society, an endorsing organization for Humanist Celebrants across the United States. These trainings help Celebrants learn how to perform weddings, assist in end of life, conduct memorial services and celebrate other important life milestones. Day long workshops were piloted in 2015 as a part of an Educational Series Weekend. The American Humanist Association’s Appignani Legal Center and LGBTQ Counsel worked with the Institute to provide “Secularism Today: Establishment Clause Jurisprudence” and “Humanism, Atheism & LGBTQ Communities”. The Humanist Institute The Humanist Institute is a training program