The Celebrant School offers these qualifications:
- the Certificate in Celebrant Studies
- the Diploma in Celebrant Studies
The Celebrant School offers a Certificate in Celebrant Studies, which consists of core papers and an elective strand in either marriages or funerals; and a Diploma in Celebrant Studies, requiring additional courses to broaden and deepen your understanding. As well as learning from experienced, practicing celebrants, you get the opportunity to build networks with your fellow celebrants, and be exposed to different cultures, ceremonies and styles.
Programme Summary
The Certificate has three components, two of which are compulsory. You elect which specialist strand you’d like to complete – Marriage or Funeral and some do both.
The Diploma extends your learning with participation in further courses – to be awarded the Diploma, you must pass all the courses listed below.
- Ceremony & Celebration (and ideal introduction to ceremony and working as a celebrant, this is the recommended starting point for your qualification)
- Marriage Celebrant Essentials and Marriage Celebrant Mastery together form the marriage strand and between them cover the full span of marriage ceremonies from simple, generic (similar to that formerly offered in a registry office) to fully personalised, bespoke marriage ceremonies. This strand can be a specialist elective for either the Certificate or Diploma)
- Funerals (specialist elective strand for Certificate or Diploma)
- Transition Through Change & Crisis (specialist elective for Diploma)
- Professional Practice (final course to complete the Certificate)
All courses reference best-practice principles for working as a professional celebrant in Aotearoa-New Zealand. They include the Code of Ethics and the Professional Standards of Celebrants Aotearoa, CANZ (the professional association for celebrants in NZ), and can be used as evidence in their VCANZ (verification) process.
Course Details
Ceremony and Celebration – Foundation Course
This is recommended as the first paper for the Certificate in Celebrant Studies. It establishes a firm understanding of the nature of ceremony and ritual and the role of the celebrant in Aotearoa-New Zealand, builds essential writing and delivery skills, and provides a framework for the planning and design of contemporary ceremonies beyond weddings and funerals.
Marriage Celebrant Essentials & Mastery
These courses are designed for those who wish to be registered and work as marriage celebrants. MCE is a very short, intensive course to ensure a thorough knowledge of the legalities imposed by the Marriage Act.
MCM fully develops writing skills and ceremony flow, and explores a spectrum of creative enactments that can be incorporated in contemporary ceremonies of commitment whether marriages, civil unions or vow renewals.
Funeral Celebrant
This course is designed for those who wish to be competent to design and deliver ceremonies for funerals, burials, and committals. It explores working with grieving families and writing engaging personal eulogies. Direct entry to this course is open to practicing celebrants seeking ongoing professional development or people with experience with grief and loss who want to expand into this area.
Transition Through Change and Crisis
This course focuses on the design and delivery of ceremonies for transition through change and crisis – whether personal, family or community (e.g. illness, bereavement, abuse, infertility, separation and divorce, natural disasters etc). It is designed principally for those who have some experience as celebrants (or facilitators) and who wish to extend their practice into this area.
Professional Practice
This is the last course in the Certificate so all previously-developed ceremony design and delivery skills are given a final polish. We look more deeply at the cultural, historical, spiritual and social context of celebrancy in Aotearoa/New Zealand and how this complexity impacts on ceremonies for our diverse communities. Students also tangibly advance their own business practices, giving consideration to their office, marketing, professional and personal support systems.
Who is this training for?
Celebrants play an increasingly important role in contemporary society. With less than half of New Zealanders claiming an affiliation to an organised religion*, many people are gravitating to celebrants to help them celebrate the milestones in their lives. Our students are drawn to celebrancy for many different reasons. They bring a wealth of experience with them, but as with any profession, specific knowledge and finely-tuned skills are critical if you want to master the role. Typically those undertaking this programme fall into one of three main groups:
- Those who wish to train as celebrants for the major rites of passage in contemporary New Zealand society, particularly baby welcome and name giving, marriage and civil unions, and funerals.
- Those who wish to use their celebrant skills to serve their family and community for life transitions and celebrations. These may include birthdays, anniversaries, reunions, coming of age, graduations, career changes, new directions, house blessings, etc.
- Those working in allied professions (including social work, counselling, psychotherapy, teaching, nursing etc) who want to integrate the use of ceremony and ritual into their current work to assist and support life transitions.
Note: Only those who wish to work as a marriage or civil union celebrants are required to be registered / gazetted. This appointment process is entirely separate to training and is undertaken by the Department of Internal Affairs – Birth, Deaths, Marriages. Details are available from www.bdm.govt.nz.
Our Graduates
Our programmes and teaching team are well-respected in the industry, but don’t take our word for it. Hear what our graduates have to say about us and the way we operate. Click here.