For some time now, the media has predicted that 2015 would be the year that humanist weddings became more popular than religious weddings.
Today’s edition of Christian Today says “Humanist weddings outstrip Church of Scotland weddings for the first time”
But the Church of Scotland disagrees.
It says it still tops the list of ceremonies conducted by religious and beliefs-based celebrants, “once the different Humanist groups are split into their denominations”.
That is strictly true, as you can see from the RGS’s table, but it does seem a bit desperate…
Are there ‘denominations’ of humanist? I guess you could say that there are, although humanism isn’t a church.
There are at least half a dozen humanist organisations in Scotland these days, and as the smaller ones grow in popularity, there will be more and more humanist weddings, along with the funerals and naming ceremonies that we also conduct.
The Caledonian Humanist Association of which I am a celebrant is only a year old, and we do things very differently from our former colleagues in the HSS.
We decided at the start that rather than run political campaigns, we would focus on serving our communities.
Rather than make couples join our organisation and pay an additional fee to do so, our membership will be free.
That way, we can keep our administration costs to the minimum, which will allow us to give away our surplus funds every year to local charities all over Scotland.
I was delighted to do that last month when I gave a cheque for £1,000 to Sands Lothian. (You can read the story that appeared in the Edinburgh Evening News here)
So: are humanist weddings more popular than the Church of Scotland’s? Let me know what you think.
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