Who can conduct a funeral?

Whilst anyone can conduct a funeral most families choose to have either a minister of religion or a celebrant conduct the ceremony itself. If you or your loved one have strong religious views then the choice of officiant is obviously going to be your priest, rabbi, imam or guru etc. but for an increasing number of people organised religion isn’t a big part of their life and so the choice of a celebrant is more appropriate.

Meaningful to your or your loved one

In the UK there are two groups of celebrants: Humanist celebrants are members of the Humanist UK society which does not allow any religious content in their ceremonies. Independent professional civil celebrants are more flexible and willing to include hymns, readings from religious texts or prayers that are meaningful to your or your loved one.

Funerals led by celebrants have become very popular. The funeral director would usually arrange the person officiating at the service on behalf on the client, and pass on the client’s contact information. This would allow the celebrant to get in touch and arrange a meeting to discuss the service.

Humanist or religious

The key difference between the two is the level of religious content in the service. A Humanist service is regarded as a non-religious ceremony, as such there is no religious content in the service. A civil celebrant however will completely tailor the service to the client’s wishes allowing as much or as little religious content the client requires. An example of this would be if a client wished to sing two hymns and have the Lord’s prayer said at the service, we would advise the client a civil celebrant would be the best option for the taking the service.

Humanists and civil celebrants charge a fee for providing the service they do. This fee is usually paid by the funeral director and included in the disbursements of the funeral invoice.

Please contact us if you would like further help.