Funeral celebrant standard. Many Funeral Directors in these states saw celebrants as a threat to their income and were openly hostile. Several firms declared every member of their staff a celebrant. Others employed an in-house celebrant who was required to perform 13 or 14 funeral ceremonies per week — compelling such employees to resort to one-size-fits-all impersonal ceremonies. A "celebrant funeral" in these contexts became the worst option available. As author and commentator Robert Larkins put it, speaking of one family’s experience- As church attendances declined, funeral directors in New South Wales pushed non-church people into organising "family ceremonies". A few families
New Humanist 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 "New Humanist" in 1972. Notable columnists have included Laurie Taylor, Simon Hoggart and Sally Feldman. In 2003 Hazhir Teimourian, a reviewer for the magazine, quit over a controversial cartoon depicting Christ slumped in