Is marriage celebrancy a profession?

By Rona Goold
Chair of Civil Celebrations Network Inc. 

As someone who has been a civil celebrant for over 20 years, and actively involved in celebrant associations and support services for fellow celebrants for over ten years, I offer the following perspective on the future of celebrancy.

Some Marriage Related Facts First.

Marriage in Australia a 'state' or religious function?

Marriage in Australia is a "state" not religious function, under Commonwealth legislation (Marriage Act 1961 Act No. 12 of 1961 as amended) and administered by the Federal Attorney General.

In fact in Western tradition, marriage has always been a secular (civil), not a religious function.

Some countries such as France do not grant religious celebrants the right to marry people on behalf of the 'state'. Church weddings as such are blessings of an existing marriage or are not recognised by the State if the couple are not already married.

Who can be authorised to conduct marriages In Australia?

People authorised to marriage fellow citizens are classified as 3 types being:

• Ministers of Recognised Religions (Part IV — 22 Division 1  Subdivision A) ie ministers of mainstream religious eg  Catholic, Anglican, Uniting, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian etc
• State and Territory officers (Part IV — 22 Division 1  Subdivision B) eg Registrars of Birth, Deaths & Marriages and their nominated staff
• Commonwealth Appointed Marriage Celebrants (Part IV — 22 Division 1  Subdivision C) ie celebrants appointed for civil or non-aligned religious ceremonies or both

Note: Whilst the nomination of ministers of recognised religions has been delegated to their churches, and their registration to state and territory departments, their authorisation still remains under the ultimate authority of the Commonwealth Marriage Act and the federal Attorney General.

Are there differences in the appointment and requirements of the different types of celebrants?

Yes. There are several differences:

• Only Commonwealth Appointed Marriage celebrants are all now required to have specific uniform marriage related training. In 2003, one Unit of a Vocational Education and Training (VET) course, now thirteen units of a full Certificate IV in Celebrancy.
  
  
• Minister of Recognised are assumed to have training, but this varies greatly across denominations and does not have to be specific to the conduct and registration of marriages, rather to the religious rites related to marriage and a number of other duties as required by their religion.
• Only Commonwealth Appointed Marriage celebrants are required to
  - a. state they are authored by law to marriage couples
  - b. give a definition of marriage according to Australian law, and
  - c. ensure  the marrying couple to say specific vows as defined by law
  - d. required to do annual ongoing training
  - e. adhere to a Code of Conduct
• Only are subject to a formal Performance Review and Complaints system with the threat of de-registration if their couples or the public complains make complaints, or the Commonwealth Marriage Register deems them unsuitable or not sufficiently competent to perform their duties.

Do these difference affect the Marrying public?

Yes in three ways.

1. Couples married by Commonwealth appointed marriage celebrants MUST say specific words whether they wish to or not, whereas depending on the religious rites the couple may be required to say different vows, say little or nothing in the way of vows.
2. Guests at mainstream religious marriages may not know whether the celebrant is duly authorised, nor what the state considers "marriage to be" in that there is no requirement that these segments be included.
3. Couples married by Commonwealth appointed marriage celebrants may have more uniform protection as regards the quality of the services they receive as the Code of Conduct, training and performance review is mandatory

Civil Marriages

See references below

• In 2009, 67% of  120,118 weddings pa =   80,479
• No of civil celebrants = 10,300
• Average of 'civil and non-aligned' weddings per celebrant per year = 7.8 

This figure includes civil marriages conducted by state registry offices.

Therefore the average number of weddings pa per independent community based civil and non-aligned religious marriage celebrant

• In 2009 is less than 7.8 weddings per year ie less than one wedding per month, compared with the fact that
  
• In 1999, the average number of weddings per civil and non-aligned religious celebrant was 32 weddings per celebrant per year ie approx. 3 weddings per month.

The Australian population was 19 million in 2000, and the number of  commonwealth appointed marriage celebrants was approx. 3,400   
The Australian population was 22.408 million in 2010, and the number of  commonwealth appointed marriage celebrants was approx.10,300 

• That is Increase in number of  celebrants is  202.9 % for an increase in the Australia population of 17.9%, ie over 11 times the rate at which the population is growing.

But if the actual number of weddings has increased, does no that justify a big increase in the number of celebrants?

One needs to compare like with like.

Yes the portion of civil marriages to religious weddings has been increasing, but that has been factored into the figures above in the average number of civil marriages per celebrant per year.

If one compares as above the growth in number of civil and non-aligned religious celebrants to the growth in population, then one needs to compare the growth in the number of marriage to the population growth ie the "Crude Marriage Rate"

• Between 1989 and 2001, the crude marriage rate declined from 7.0 to 5.3.
• However, after a slight increase between 2001 and 2004, there has since been little variation.

That is there has been no corresponding increase in the rate of marriage to justify the increasing rate of marriage celebrant appointments.

What is a Profession?

Wikipedia offers a comprehensive definition of what a profession is. See below.

I have re-ordered the following aspects in order of priority for consideration of the issues involved.

• Public service and altruism:
• Legitimacy:  
• High status and rewards:   
• Code of professional conduct or ethics:  
• Skill based on theoretical knowledge
• Extensive period of education:  
• Institutional training:  
• Testing of competence:  
• Licensed practitioners:
• Work autonomy:  
• Control of remuneration and advertising:  
• Individual clients:  
• Mobility:
• Professional association:
• Exclusion, monopoly and legal recognition:
• Male-dominated:
• Middle-class occupations:  
• Inaccessible body of knowledge:  
• Indeterminacy of knowledge:  
• Ritual:
• Professional association:
• Self-regulation:  
  

Is Marriage Celebrancy a Profession?

• a complex body of knowledge that requires an extensive period of education and
• usually require many years of practice to develop a high level of competence and skill at dealing with the variety of specific circumstances with which one needs to deal.

Since 2003, Commonwealth appointed marriage celebrants are legally required to provide a ceremony of choice to their couples, under the Code of Practice. Only adherence to minimal legal requirements was  required prior to then.

Even so, the breadth of ceremony knowledge and skills is limited to only one type, from a much broader range of possible ceremonies.

Can Marriage Celebrancy ever be a Profession?

On these criteria then, Marriage Celebrancy may require a professional attitude, but would not ever fulfill the criteria of being a profession in its own right.
 
Can Civil Celebrancy Ever Be a Profession?

Professions evolve. Usually it takes 100 years or more for a profession to develop, and Civil Celebrancy is only 40 years down the track.

The roots of the Civil Marriage Celebrant Program in the 1970s were based on human and civil rights.

The civil celebrant program originated to offer an alternative service to non-religious people or to people who had non-mainstream religious beliefs or special needs.

Before its introduction, there only people appointed to conduct marriage were overwhelming male. Some 60,000 males - I believe -ministers of religion and Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry staff.

Lyn Korr in her "Early Days" article describes the Civil Celebrant Program as "a unique civil celebrant program that could respond to the psychological, social and cultural needs of those seeking to marry. He* appointed people from all walks of life, male and female, young and not so young." (* Lionel Murphy)

As civil celebrants meet the needs of couples who beliefs or needs did not fit within mainstream religious communities, they were called upon to offer guidance and support of other rites of passage, traditionally held within a religious context.

Honouring the loss of a loved one through death or celebrating the birth of a baby and new family member. In other words, providing a valid alternative to the "Hatchings, Matchings and Dispatchings" religious ceremonies.

In more recent times, civil celebrants have been called upon to bring their unique inclusive approach to other life events or transitions - same sex commitment ceremonies, renewal of marriage vows, birthday celebrations, moving home, and losing companion animal ceremonies.

This is a positive trend to be encourage from a national personal a community health perspective. In many ways, Australians celebrate rather badly - "a booze up with a few words thrown in" which models poor health behaviours to our younger generation. This approach may have had its beginnings in our convict past, where 'pomp and ceremony' was seen as only the province of the "rich".

It is interesting to observe that the evolution of civil celebrancy in Australia has this uniquely personal twist - the design of ceremony not just to meet the general psychological and social needs of a couple or family or community, but also to suit their specific needs and circumstances.

So how to build upon this and envisage a role that has many of the qualities of a profession.?

The ACCN sees the possibility of the development of a profession for a unique role for civil individual, family and community celebrants.

Such a role for an independent civil celebrant in a democratic society would be to:

• inspire individuals, couples and families to build more harmonious supportive relationships
• provide an inclusive framework through which individuals, couples and families can be supported during times of major changes in their lives
• acknowledge times and roles past, articulating achievements, in learning from mistakes and moving on from failures and successes
• provide a vision of future roles and relationships, offering guidance to encourage and support change for optimum health of all concerned
• inform and informally educate on issues related to marriage, family and community life, loss and grief, managing change, "civilised" behaviour in a modern day context, human/citizens rights and responsibilities

Such a role would fall primarily within the social work, community services and health sectors, and the type of work would be described as akin to community development and community education. There would be some unique aspects that one could describe as more like a community group "life coach" and as a group facilitator and playwright.

As such all the aspects outlined in GREEN in the above list of criteria of a profession above could apply to civil marriage celebrants who expand their roles to encompass a much broader range of ceremonies with is propose to fulfill the aims of the ACCN model.

Altruism, increased knowledge and skills requirements, with work autonomy and huge rewards (not necessarily monetary) etc. could apply. Full-time work may be spread over different days of the week, but fit a five day working / 2 days off week "full-time" work criteria.

However to "inform and informally educate on issues related to marriage, family and community life, loss and grief, managing change, "civilised" behaviour in a modern day context, human / citizens rights and responsibilities" would make the criteria in BLUE above less likely.

That is: If being defined as a profession requires "monopoly, exclusivity and male dominance and the other criteria in BLUE above" then civil celebrancy  is unlikely to ever develop fully into a "profession". And many civil celebrants would think that "not be a bad thing for Australia".

Rona Goold

ACCN Director

Classically, there were only three professions: Divinity, Medicine, and Law.  The main milestones which mark an occupation being identified as a profession are:

• It became a full-time occupation;
• The first training school was established;
• The first university school was established;
• The first local association was established;
• The first national association was established;
• The codes of professional ethics were introduced;
• State licensing laws were established.[2]

• Skill based on theoretical knowledge
• Professional association:
• Extensive period of education:  
• Testing of competence:  
• Institutional training:  
• Licensed practitioners:
• Work autonomy:  
• Code of professional conduct or ethics:  
• Self-regulation:  
• Public service and altruism:  
• Exclusion, monopoly and legal recognition:
• Control of remuneration and advertising:  
• High status and rewards:   
• Individual clients:  
• Middle-class occupations:  
• Male-dominated:
• Ritual:
• Legitimacy:  
• Inaccessible body of knowledge:  
• Indeterminacy of knowledge:  
• Mobility:

Limited number of weddings

Reference: http://www.ema.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/Marriage_Becomingacelebrant_Becomingacelebrant

Most marriage celebrants perform a very limited number of weddings each year. The following statistics will be of interest:

• In 2009, there were 120,118 marriages registered in Australia, representing an increase of 1,362 (1.1 per cent) from 2008.
• The number of Commonwealth-registered marriage celebrants has increased from just over 3,300 in 2003 to over 10,300 in April 2011.
• There are approximately 23,600 ministers of religion registered by state and territory registering authorities to solemnise marriages.
• Of the marriages registered in 2009, approximately 67 per cent were performed by civil celebrants.
• To find out how many registered marriage celebrants there are in your area, you can search the Register of Marriage Celebrants / List of All Authorised Marriage Celebrants (see related links).
• More information on current statistics and trends on marriages performed each year can be found at the Australian Bureau of Statistics website.

Crude Marriage Rate

Reference: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/1D63A0059ECDFDCFCA2577ED00146123?opendocument

• Although the number of marriages is now the highest recorded, the population has also increased substantially over time. As a result, the crude marriage rate is now lower than it was 20 years ago.
• In 2009, the crude marriage rate was 5.5 marriages per 1,000 estimated resident population, compared with 7.0 marriages per 1,000 estimated resident population in 1989.
• Between 1989 and 2001, the crude marriage rate declined from 7.0 to 5.3. However, after a slight increase between 2001 and 2004, there has since been little variation.

Population Growth

Reference: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/2035.0

• Australia's fourteenth national Census of Population and Housing was held on 7 August 2001.  
• Between 1996 and 2001, Australia's resident population increased by nearly 1.1 million people, from 18.3 million to 19.4 million, surpassing 19 million in 2000.
• The majority (57%) of this growth was from natural increase (the difference between births and deaths), the remaining was due to net overseas migration (43%).

Estimated Resident Population 

Reference: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3101.0

The preliminary estimated resident population (ERP) of Australia at 30 September 2010 was 22,408,000 persons.

• This was an increase of 345,500 persons (1.6%) since 30 September 2009 and 78,800 persons since 30 June 2010.
• The increase over 12 months, to the end of September 2010, was the lowest recorded since the year ending September 2006.
• The preliminary natural increase recorded for the year ended 30 September 2010 (159,800) was 2.1% (or 3,300 persons) higher than the natural increase recorded for the year ended 30 September 2009 (156,500).
• The preliminary net overseas migration recorded for the year ended 30 September 2010 (185,800) was 36% (or 102,200 persons) lower than the net overseas migration recorded for the year ended 30 September 2009 (288,000).