Secular pastors

Mishap , MOST people no longer celebrate CHristmas as a religious event , WHAT ! ARE YOU FOR REAL , Surely , hopefully you mean many

Have you looked at the other link I put up on the Boris thread? It's funny.

I googled it too....

I googled it.

You made it up.

S A L?

JO4 , YOU are a tinker , S A L ,

Mishap also mentions the pastoral role undertaken by ministers of religion. In my experience of the CoE, vicars don't ask people what their religious affiliation is if they are in trouble and looking for support. Chaplains in hospitals, prisons, workplaces etc offer immediate service to those of any faith, or none. Having said that, there are lots of charitable and commercial counselling and support agencies covering every sad aspect of life.

DD1 (already an assistant Registrar, licensed to conduct Weddings) has now trained and branched out as a free lance civil celebrant - funerals, baby namings, renewal of vows, hand-fastings and the like. She already does most of the civil partnerships locally and is looking forward to 2014 when same sex couples will be able to get married like everyone else.

Yes - the Humanist Assoc do have people who officiate at such ceremonies, but they do their bit for a particular couple/individual and then leave. I was thinking we should have people who were permanently employed within a community to fulfill all these roles regularly, as well as pastoral visiting etc.

The reason I suggested the use of church buildings is that there are so few beautiful buildings where these secular ceremonies can take place - one of the reasons many people get married in church even though they are not Christians is because the alternatives are so naff. Churches used to be social centres where people ate, drank and danced and that could be resurrected.

I also felt that the use of the same building would be a way of building bridges between religious and secular communities - a worthy aim I think.

Amazingly I had spotted that Christmas has its origins in a Christian ceremony! - but it has taken on a different meaning now in most people's minds, which was why I added the midwinter to it. Most people no longer celebrate Christmas as a religious event.

We are so steeped in the idea that a harvest festival involves thanking someone for the food that I can see that you might have a difficulty looking at it in a new way - but there might be other ways of being happy that the harvest is in that do not involve thanking a deity; and that create a ceremony that brings people together to share that happiness. And perhaps involves the collection of food for the less well-off.

Yes - I have read a review of the De Botton book and will seek it out - it sounds very interesting.

And who are you going to thank at your Harvest Festivals? The local farmer I suppose. Or Tesco?

Could they not supply their own churches? (that is the polite version of that post)

And Christmas, in itself, can only be Christian.

There is much information about this on the website.
Look under 'Secular ceremonies' 'Humanist funerals' 'Green funerals'
'One Spirit Interfaith Foundation'.
I know a woman in Taunton,Somerset who discusses and arranges bespoke funerals whether you have a faith,walk your own spiritual path or have no religious beliefs.I'm sure some of you will know of others around the country

Have you read "Religion for Atheists" by Alain De Botton. Really good and thought provoking. He believes we need many of the things religion gives us without the doctrines and creeds.

I have a friend who is a humanist. I'm not sure of his title but he can officiate at naming ceremonies, weddings and funerals.

They used to be called 'the local bobby'