A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, races, religions, denominations, countries, social classes, and sexual orientations. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vows by a couple, presentation of a gift, and a public proclamation of marriage by an authority figure or celebrant. Special wedding garments are often worn, and the ceremony is sometimes followed by a wedding reception. Music, poetry, prayers, or readings from religious texts or literature are also commonly incorporated into the ceremony, as well as superstitious customs.
A ceremony is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion.
Lionel Keith Murphy QC was an Australian politician, barrister, and judge. He was a Senator for New South Wales from 1962 to 1975, serving as Attorney-General in the Whitlam government, and then sat on the High Court from 1975 until his death.
Quaker weddings are the traditional ceremony of marriage within the Religious Society of Friends. Quaker weddings are conducted in a similar fashion to regular Quaker meetings for worship, primarily in silence and without an officiant or a rigid program of events, and therefore differ greatly from traditional Western weddings. In some respects a Quaker marriage resembles a common-law marriage.
The Marriage Act 1961(Cth) is an act of the Parliament of Australia which regulates marriage in Australia. Since its passage in 1961, it has been amended on numerous occasions and applies uniformly throughout Australia (including its external territories); and any law made by a state or territory inconsistent with the Act is invalid. The Act was made under the power granted to the federal parliament under section 51(xxi) of the Australian Constitution. Before the passage of the Act, each state and territory had its own marriage laws. The Act only recognises monogamous marriages that comply with the requirements of the Act; other forms of union, including traditional Aboriginal marriages, are not recognised. However, the Family Law Act 1975 treats de facto relationships and polygamous marriages as marriages for the purpose of recognising the rights of parties at a breakup. Since 2009, the Family Law Act 2009 has also recognised the property rights of each partner of de facto relationships on separation.
Humanist Society Scotland is a Scottish registered charity that promotes humanist views and offers humanist wedding, funeral, and baby-naming ceremonies. It is a member of the European Humanist Federation and Humanists International.
An officiant or celebrant is someone who officiates at a religious or secular service or ceremony, such as marriage, burial, namegiving or baptism.
The Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association is a humanist lifestance organization in Iceland, that promotes secularism, offers celebrancy services and contributes to the spreading of humanism in Iceland and abroad. It is a member of the European Humanist Federation and Humanists International.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to humanism:
In Australia, celebrants or civil celebrants are people who conduct formal ceremonies in the community, particularly weddings – which represent the main ceremony of legal import conducted by celebrants –, and for this reason are often referred to as marriage celebrants. They may also conduct extra-legal ceremonies such as naming of babies, renewal of wedding vows, funerals, divorces, becoming a teenager, changing name, significant birthdays, retirements, and other life milestones. Officiating at a marriage requires that the celebrant be an authorised marriage celebrant under Australian law, or the law where the marriage takes place, but officiating at non-legal ceremonies does not.
A marriage officiant or marriage celebrant is a person who officiates at a wedding ceremony.
A humanist celebrant or humanist officiant is a person who performs humanist celebrancy services, such as non-religious weddings, funerals, child namings, coming of age ceremonies and other rituals. Some humanist celebrants are accredited by humanist organisations, such as Humanists UK, Humanist Society Scotland (HSS), The Humanist Society (US), and the Humanist Association of Canada (HAC).
The marriageable age is 16 with parental consent but 18 otherwise. Marriage must be between two otherwise unmarried people. If one of the parties wishing to marry is subject to immigration control, notice of marriage can only be given at a register office, which both parties must attend together. The UK Government was obliged, under the Northern Ireland Act 2019, to extend same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland by secondary legislation that took effect on 13 January 2020. Until then, same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions were treated as civil partnerships. Civil partnerships became available to same-sex couples in December 2005 and grant rights and responsibilities identical to civil marriage.
In Belgium, organized secularism is the local associations and organizations which provide moral support for naturalist, atheist, agnostic, secular humanist, freethinking, Bright, or irreligious and non-confessional citizens. A person who subscribes to such entities or ideologies, or at least espouses an interest in "free inquiry" apart from religious traditions is described as a "secular" or "free-thinker".
Marriage in Australia is regulated by the federal government, which is granted the power to make laws regarding marriage by section 51(xxi) of the constitution. The Marriage Act 1961 applies uniformly throughout Australia to the exclusion of all state laws on the subject.
Dally Messenger III, is an Australian developer and media spokesperson of the fledgling civil celebrant program founded by Australian Attorney-General, Lionel Murphy. He has also been credited with contributions as an author. After leaving the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1968, Messenger became a public critic of the Catholic Church. Messenger has written for The Australian and Nation Review. Messenger was founder and editor of the magazine Dance Australia. His books cover topics including rugby league, children of separated parents, early Melbourne radio, how to design celebrant ceremonies, and the history of celebrancy.
A civil funeral celebrant is a person who officiates at funerals which are not closely connected with religious beliefs and practises. They are analogous to civil celebrants for marriage ceremonies. Civil celebrant funerals began in Australia in 1975. As secular (civil) wedding ceremonies became accepted, first in Australia and then in other Western countries, a similar process for funerals has since been established in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. Civil funeral celebrants are often also civil marriage ceremony celebrants.
A civil, or registrar, ceremony is a non-religious legal marriage ceremony performed by a government official or functionary. In the United Kingdom, this person is typically called a registrar. In the United States, civil ceremonies may be performed by town, city, or county clerks, judges or justices of the peace, or others possessing the legal authority to support the marriage as the wedding officiant.
American Marriage Ministries is a non-denominational Internet church based in Seattle. The church was founded by Glen Yoshioka in 2009 and ordains and trains people to officiate at weddings. The church is a secular non-denominational organization that does not promote any specific religious ideologies, instead allowing its ministers to define their own practice and faith. This allows ceremonies to be tailored to the beliefs of the couple. The church ordained Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen in 2017. The church had operated entirely online until June 2019, when its ministers began performing in-person ordinations in response to Tennessee passing a law disallowing ministers ordained online from solemnizing weddings in the state. According to Executive Director Lewis King, by June 2017 the church has ordained more than 715,000 people in the United States, including over 13,400 active ministers in Tennessee. The church performed mass ordinations in a number of cities in Tennessee, with the majority of attendees being those who had already been ordained online but need to update their status to comply with the new law.
Remi Barclay Messenger was a founding member of three prominent professional theatre companies in the New York City area – the Performance Group (1967–1970), with Richard Schechner, Whole Theatre (1971–1990) and Voices of Earth (1988–2000), the latter two with Olympia Dukakis as a co-director. Her theatre work included years of acting, directing and teaching as well as creating workshops for a wide spectrum of institutions, schools and universities. In 2002, she graduated as a civil celebrant and celebrant trainer in New Jersey, and from 2004 in Australia. She retired in 2016.
