It made me laugh when I saw my photo with this headline, but I really don’t think it’s all down to me! Yes it’s a big story, but there’s another one in among the statistics published by the National Register of Scotland: the continuing rise and rise of humanist marriage. While ceremonies conducted by Humanist Society Scotland … Continue Reading
The lovely people at the Scottish Wedding Directory came round this morning to do a Live Facebook Chat: as a former producer and director, it was fascinating to see what you can do with just an iPhone, a tripod and a microphone.Whether what I had to say about what makes humanist weddings so special is … Continue Reading
Watching the war in Syria for the last four years has been depressing, frustrating and disempowering, but Harriet Harris, my friend and colleague at the University of Edinburgh Chaplaincy Centre, has come up with a great initiative, which we launched this evening on the beach in North Berwick. It’s called A Light For Aleppo, and … Continue Reading
There are lots of definitions of what humanists believe. The Amsterdam Declaration is the best known, but when we at the CHA decided to give free membership to anyone who wants it, we decided to give a simpler definition, and here it is. Most humanist organisations define themselves by what they’re not and what they … Continue Reading
This is the first time I’ve read a Leader article on Humanism, and I think the writer strikes just the right tone in today’s edition of The Scotsman. “But if humanists did not provide an alternative, marriage itself might be in significant decline, which should be a genuine concern for mainstream religions. The figures do not … Continue Reading
For some time now, the media has predicted that 2015 would be the year that humanist weddings became more popular than religious weddings. The Registrar General of Scotland recently published their annual statistics, which show that to be the case. Today’s edition of Christian Today says “Humanist weddings outstrip Church of Scotland weddings for the … Continue Reading
I was delighted when Cameron Buchanan MSP invited me to deliver one of the weekly TIme For Reflection talks at the Scottish Parliament earlier this year. In the sixteen years that the Parliament has existed, I am only the fifth humanist to have been asked to do this, so it was an honour. The guidelines … Continue Reading
I was delighted to join the reverend Richard Holloway and others as part of this conversation at St Andrew’s and St George’s church last month, and Liam Fraser who also spoke, pointed me towards this video of the event. It’s long, but if you want to know why I think people choose to have humanist … Continue Reading
It’s amazing what’s changed since June 18th 2005, when Karen Watts and Martin Reijns were married by Ivan Middleton at Edinburgh Zoo. Then there were only 12 celebrants authorised to conduct marriage. Now the HSS has ten times that number. Then the society could have counted its membership in the hundreds. Today there are more than 10,000 … Continue Reading