Cornwall
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Devon
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Born in 1948, I live and work in Dorset. My career has been mainly in social work and
education. I have been a celebrant with the BHA for 4 years and am accredited for weddings
and namings.
Your wedding or civil partnership celebration is an important event, which will be a wonderfully enjoyable occasion.
I will be privileged to help you create & choreograph a ceremony which is just right for you.
With a humanist ceremony
you have the freedom to say exactly what you choose & to stage the event where you wish.
I look forward to meeting
& sharing with you to begin making the arrangements for your special day.
I am accredited by the BHA to conduct weddings, namings, affirmations and funerals. Having
retired from my military career I now devote much of my time to my ceremonies work and,
as a member of the training team, I support other celebrants.
Human interaction is frequently complex and yet we appear to be leading increasingly insular
lives. I feel that conducting Humanist ceremonies for rites of passage enables us to experience
and promote the warm and positive aspects of our human nature, to do as we would be done by.
Philippa is a Housing Manager who has grown up with Humanist beliefs from her father Philip Howell, a celebrant for over 20 years. Philip and Philippa both cover Gloucestershire.
I have been working within the Gloucestershire funeral trade since 1985, and my involvement with humanist ceremonies began soon afterwards.
'Becoming a funeral celebrant is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I enjoy meeting people, and have a sympathatic and kind nature.
With the families assistance, I prepare a sensitive and appropriate ceremony and can make suggestions, if necessary, for readings and music to ensure the ceremony is a truly fitting tribute to their loved one.
I am a retired Civil Servant, with hobbies and interests such as travel, family history, gardening and reading especially 18/19th century social history.
It is really important to have the funeral ceremony you want and to play a part in it if you wish.
I am very pleased to be able to use skills, developed over a long career in education,
to listen to bereaved family and friends and help them put together a ceremony
which celebrates and honours the life of the person who has died, and which
reflects their personality and values.
I spent forty years working in education as a teacher, adviser, manager,
trainer, researcher and principal of a sixth form college. On retiring, I chose to make
being a Humanist celebrant my second career, to go on helping people
in a way which would use my skills and experience and to put into
practice the Humanist values I tried to bring to my work in education.
I hope a Humanist funeral can help people accept and respond to death - their
own and that of those with whom they share their lives - as a central part of the
human experience. Each person should be
valued and remembered as unique, in a way which reflects their
beliefs and is true to them.
I have been an accredited officiant and celebrant with the British Humanist Association for over 12 years. It is such a rewarding occupation and I feel privileged and honoured to be able to do this kind of work and consider it my vocation.
I have been a member of the BHA for many years and wholeheartedly support the work that is being done.
I have many interests, I enjoy reading and one of my passions is gardening and I have a great affinity with the beauty of nature and a great love of all animals, and own a delightful but very naughty little Patterdale terrier.
I love my job as a celebrant and I feel privileged to work with people at important times of
transition in their lives.
Having first trained with the BHA in 2000, I took early retirement from teaching two years
later in order to pursue the career more fully and I am beginning to see it as my life’s work.
I am now increasingly involved in training and mentoring new celebrants for the BHA.
I see myself as a warm, positive person and I try to live my life ethically and openly. I enjoy
running, cycling, walking, singing, reading and gardening and I am interested in environmental
issues, psychology and health.
I am a non-practising barrister who worked as a legal adviser, senior manager and trainer within the Magistrates' Courts Service for 26 years. I have also been a partner in a small business.
I believe I am someone with respect for others, compassion and empathy. I enjoy reading, music, walking and spending time with friends.
Everyone's life has value and is unique. For me, an important part of the work of a celebrant is to enable the bereaved and anyone planning their own funeral to be aware of and make their own choices about the ceremony they want. It is a privilege to assist people to mark the life that has been and say goodbye in a way that is meaningful to them.
What really matters at a funeral is how you feel afterwards….
"You made what we expected to be a very sad occasion so comforting and warm. I will remember it and smile."
"It made a very difficult day so much easier to bear."
"You got her just right - you have a skill in herding the wild comments we gave you, to form a cohesive narrative that expresses her."
"That was lovely, I really enjoyed it. I know what I want for my own funeral now."
"Your words are one of the things that help me feel closer to her when I need to."
"You brought him to life for me."
"That was absolutely magnificent!"
I have been interested in the provision of suitable and meaningful funerals for many years. A funeral ceremony should reflect the personality of the deceased, will normally be a celebration of that person's life and should provide the bereaved with a sense of having honoured and having said an appropriate goodbye to their loved one.
The provision of uplifting wedding and partnership ceremonies, created in close co-operation with the couple, is a service in which I feel privileged to be involved.
I have lived in Devon for the last 30 years and enjoy golf, languages, gardening, walking, meeting people and European travel.
I have been an accredited celebrant since 2000 for funerals, first in Kent,
then in Cornwall since 2002.
I enjoy conducting ceremonies and meeting families at a time of need,
or for joyful planning, to create a fulfilling and uplifting experience. In March 2003 I
completed the training for conducting weddings and naming ceremonies.
I have had the good fortune to have travelled extensively since the early 1960's,
living in Canada, the USA and South Africa.
Among my interests are ornithology, fishing, music, amateur dramatics, 2 demanding
dogs and working on 10 acres of overgrown ancient woodland.
A Guernseyman, as well as being a Humanist celebrant, I am also
a funeral director in my day-to-day work so don't be taken aback if your call about a
wedding, affirmation or naming ceremony is answered in the name of my funeral
company.
I have conducted weddings in some unusual but beautiful settings such as the
Silbe Nature Reserve and St. James Concert Hall in Guernsey, Gorey Castle and
La Mare Vineyard in Jersey. I have conducted weddings atop the cliffs in the
peaceful Island of Sark and in the luxuriant gardens of the White House Hotel
on the tiny Island of Herm.