Humanist wedding ceremonies have only been legal in Scotland since June 2005, but they’ve become so popular that people are often unaware of the long campaign conducted by the Humanist Society of Scotland to make them available. I wrote an article about this for the International Humanist & Ethical Union’s magazine which has just been … Continue Reading
Archives
Thought for the World
I haven’t been posting much about weddings recently because I’ve been very busy organising the Humanist Society of Scotland’s third series of alternative Thought for the Day podcasts, Thought for the World. It’s part of a long-running campaign to persuade the BBC to open up their Thought for the Day slot on Radio 4 to … Continue Reading
A Christmas Message from Ricky Gervais
New Humanist Magazine has come up with a great idea: an advent calendar of podcasts by well known commentators and comedians. Today’s comes from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant The devil may have the best tunes, but the humanists have the best jokes.
Love and Proposition 8: Keith Obermann’s moving plea
“If you voted for this proposition, I have some questions for you,” begins Keith Obermann on MSNBC and he goes on to say all that needs to be said about the right of gay people to marry in the USA: much of it applies here in the UK too. I recently interviewed former Bishop Richard … Continue Reading
Face to Faith – Making Everyone Feel Welcome
Humanist weddings are non-religious but they’re not anti-religious and I believe it’s important that everyone feels welcome. It’s a subject that comes up fairly often when I meet people for the first time and although many couples have no interest in religion themselves, I always ask them about their friends and relatives so if they … Continue Reading
Little touches
It’s been a busy – if rather wet – summer, but now that the swallows are leaving our shores (at a rate of 3,500 an hour, according to the bird observatory at Portland Bill) I’ve had time to look back over the wedding ceremonies I’ve conducted this year and I’m not entirely surprised to find … Continue Reading
Humanist Weddings in Scotland rise by 64%
As the media officer for the HSS, I was delighted to see the response to the new statistics released by the Registrar General for Scotland last week about the rise in the number of Humanist Weddings. Although not as huge a leap as 2006, when they went up five-fold, it shows that although marriage itself … Continue Reading
Is Humanism some kind of weird hippy thing?
Until they get married, or go to a funeral, most people have never heard of Humanism, so we get asked all sorts of questions by Anxious of Newtonmearns. So let me reassure you now that – unless you really want to – we don’t all take our clothes off and dance widdershins round a yew … Continue Reading
What is Humanism? A Simple Definition
Humanism isn’t a religion – it’s a very old philosophy that represents the views of hundreds of millions of people around the world. There are lots of definitions out there, but my favourite comes from the late Kurt Vonnegut, who said that “being a humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or … Continue Reading
Why choose a Humanist Wedding?
According to the latest official statistics, weddings in the UK as a whole are in long term decline, down by 10%, year on year. Which is odd, because the demand for humanist weddings in Scotland is growing all the time. In 2005 – when they became legal – there were 434. By 2007, there were … Continue Reading