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The story of the profession of Civil Celebrants in the world, is being written in Australia on a daily basis. As written elsewhere on these pages, Attorney-General Lionel Murphy appointed the first Civil Celebrant (Lois D'Arcy) in 1973. Dally Messenger III was appointed in February 1974 and appointed by Murphy as first secretary of the ACMCA - the one national organisation formed by Murphy. Dally shared Murphy's ideal to provide ceremonies of substance and dignity to the secular people. His personal story is intimately entwined with the history of civil ceremony and in 2009, he has an acknowledged track record of being the pioneer mentor of thousands of celebrants throughout Australia, New Zealand, the USA and the UK.
In the UK, Marriage and Funeral celebrants who are not required by law to obtain qualifications are completing College of Celebrancy Diplomas in these areas. In the United States since 2002, a Foundation is training celebrants so the profession is established and growing.
In New Zealand, celebrants are well established (1978 -), Dally has been guest speaker at their conferences on three occasions and many New Zealanders are graduates of the College and of Dally's close colleague Mary Hancock - who established the first course in celebrancy in Auckland. In other countries such as Japan and Finland, a few celebrants practise their chosen profession with College qualifications created in Australia. Suffice it to say that there are many, many outstanding celebrants working in their chosen profession, maintaining high standards of service and integrity.
Dally is currently writing the history of Civil Celebrancy in Australia and the world, as a major player in this history. His triumphs, trial s and tribulations are sometimes public knowledge, sometimes not. But one thing is certain, whether one agrees with his methods or not, there can be no doubt of his desire to ensure that the most important of life's ceremonies are conducted with substance and dignity. To this end he has been a passionate advocate for personal quality and integrity in celebrants and ceremony, disassociating himself from the low standards in much of the training scene. He experienced great personal distress and a heavy financial penalty for attempting to raise the fee profile for Funeral Celebrants. (Dally was the only celebrant fined, but four other celebrants were questioned and had to pay expensive legal fees.)
All the above information is to help understanding of a very small portion of the background to this amazing profession. It is going through a great stage of turmoil and the future for some celebrants may be bleak. But when all is said and done, the professional, generous attitude of celebrants such as Dally and many he has trained, will see this profession grow into providing ceremonies of dignity and substance well into the future.
Yvonne Werner
Registrar
International College of Celebrancy.
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