I’ve been a member of the Scottish Independent Celebrants’ Association (SICA) for most of my celebrant career. I was elected to the committee a few years ago and helped revamp their website and then I spent two years as Chair. And one of the things that drew me to the organization was the word “independent”.
When SICA was first set up in 2011, the celebrant profession was quite new in Scotland. Up till then, most funerals were conducted by ministers or priests. Weddings were also mainly religious affairs or were registry office marriages with minimal ceremony.
But celebrants were beginning to appear. Some of those belonged to the Humanist societies. There had long been a tradition of totally secular funerals, although this was very much the minority. But Scotland was becoming a more secular society and so there was increasing demand for non-religious and person-centred ceremonies. Humanists catered to this trend. Their approach was always strictly atheist, with no mention of god or the afterlife, no prayers, no hymns.
But for many families, things were never so clear-cut. In my own experience, some families may consider themselves to be non-religious but might still believe that their loved ones are reunited and are living on in some way. Many people express a belief in spirituality even if they would never describe themselves as Christian or Moslem or any other “organized” religion. Some families have a blend of beliefs with some members atheist and others still church-going Christians.
Then there are cases when a family may still be church-going but prefer to have a celebrant conduct a funeral. Why? Because they want the funeral to be based on the life of their loved one. They want a eulogy, they want memories and anecdotes. And they know that a typical Mass for example, may barely mention the life of the person.
So the demand for celebrants increased, but just as these families didn’t want a rigid religious service, nor did they want a rigid Humanist approach. And this gap was filled by “independent celebrants”. Today the great majority of funerals are led by such independents even if they don’t always style themselves that way.
I was always drawn to this independent tradition and always wore the independent label with pride. Partly this is because I feel that it gives me greatest professional fulfilment to be able to tailor the work that I do to the wishes and values of the family and friends. And partly because I see myself as a bit of a independent minded person in general.
But SICA has had to confront a possible difficulty. Wedding celebrants are able under Scots law to marry two people…. but only if the celebrant is registered with a belief body accredited with the National Records of Scotland (NRS). For example, Agnostic Scotland or Open Beliefs Scotland (so, not necessarily religious). NRS considers these celebrants not to be “independent” …. because they are members of the belief body. But many of these celebrants are also members of SICA which is not a belief body but more of a professional association.
We’ve feared for some years that this causes potential conflicts for these celebrants. They need to say they are not independent because they are members of a belief group… but at the same time they are members of an association of independent celebrants!
The potential conflict has grown much sharper recently, partly because the number of wedding celebrants has increased a great deal, and partly because the NRS appears to be tightening up on its procedures. So what has always been a bit of a niggle for SICA threatened to become a full-blown crisis with the possibility that a large number of members would have to leave.
One answer to this problem would be to drop the word “independent”. Doing so would remove the problem at a stroke. But it would require a lot of work to update logos and branding and documents…. and more importantly it would dilute that sense of identity as independents.
To help resolve this, the new Chair, Diane McLeish, asked Stella McCulloch and me to conduct a consultation of the membership with a view to taking a final decision one way or the other. We were asked because neither of us is a wedding celebrant so we could remain impartial.
In parallel with the membership consultation we also tried to get some definitive answers from NRS. We understood their position but we wanted to ask specifically about dual membership given that SICA is a different type of organization. It took a lot of chasing … and patience, they are not an easy body to pin down! But in the end we managed to get the answers that we needed and were really pleased (and a little surprised) to learn that NRS saw no problem with dual membership of this kind. Suddenly (and at a stroke!) the need to change the name faded away.
I for one am really pleased that we remain Scottish independent celebrants and that I can continue to wear my independence with pride!