Celebrancy is a profession founded in Australia in 1973 by the then Australian attorney-general Lionel Murphy.[1] The aim of the celebrancy program was to authorise persons to officiate at secular ceremonies of substance, meaning and dignity mainly for non-church people. Up until this point legal marriages were reserved only to clergy or officers of the Births, Deaths & Marriages registry office. These appointed persons, referred to in the Marriage Act of Australia as "authorised celebrants", create & conduct weddings, funerals, namings, house dedications, coming of age[2] and other life ceremonies for those who do not wish to be married or have other ceremonies in a church or registry office.[1]
- ^ a b Messenger, Dally, Murphy's Law and the Pursuit of Happiness: a History of the Civil Celebrant Movement, Spectrum Publications, Melbourne (Australia), 2012 ISBN 978-0-86786-169-3
- ^ Grimes, Ronald L. (2000). Deeply into the bone : re-inventing rites of passage. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 87ff. ISBN 0520236750.