The Australian Humanist Celebrant
Our Founder, Lionel Murphy, was the first first Australian Humanist of the Year. In the years before 1973, he continued to be appalled at the mistreatment of non-believers in religion, at the hands of state and church.
He saw the opportunity to bring substance and dignity into the lives of non-religious people by way of establishing civil celebrants. He made a conscious decision not to divide non-religious people into humanists and non-humanist. Rather humanist members and celebrants saw themselves as the inspirational spearhead to fight for the dignity of all non-believers in religion.
He made another distinction. In the establishment of civil ceremonies he saw that non-churchgoers were best served by celebrants who focused on ceremonies which could be as good, nay better, in their power and substance than church ceremonies. So rather than spending their energy on attacking religion and believers he urged celebrants to co-create the best ceremonies ever.
We Humanist celebrants see ourselves as playing a leadership role in educating all civil celebrants in the original vision and ideals of the program.
Australian Humanist Celebrant Network 