A civil funeral celebrant is a person who officiates at funerals which are not closely connected with religious beliefs and practises. They are analogous to civil celebrants for marriage ceremonies. Civil celebrant funerals began in Australia in 1975.^[1] As secular (civil) wedding ceremonies became accepted, first in Australia and then in other Western countries,^[2][3] a similar process for funerals has since been established in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.^{[4]: 148–192 [5][6][7][1]: 56 [8][4]} Civil funeral celebrants are often also civil marriage ceremony celebrants.

A civil funeral celebrant provides funerals for people who do want a religious ceremony and those who have religious beliefs but do not want to be buried or cremated from a church or other religious building. People often choose civil celebrants because they want a professional person to co-create a service centred on the deceased person's life but without any formal religious ceremony.^{[4]: 164–165} In celebrant ceremonies all decisions about the details of the ceremony are made by the family of the deceased in consultation with the celebrant. Best practice is for celebrants to interview the family, prepare and check the eulogy, brief those giving reminiscences and provide resources and suggestions that will assist the family choose aspects of the ceremony such as the music, video and photo presentations, quotations (poetry and prose) and symbols.^[4]: 164 Sometimes a rehearsal is indicated for a funeral. More often a planning session ensures that the ceremony is as wanted. Celebrants work with funeral directors^[9] but are usually the principal officiant at the ceremony.^[9] The celebrants do not officiate from any doctrinal belief or unbelief on the principle that their own beliefs and values are not relevant.^{[9]: 148–154}

An acknowledged pioneer of civil celebrancy, Dally Messenger III, claimed to have officiated at the first funeral celebrant ceremony. This was in the sense that the client sought a service from Messenger, as a government appointed civil celebrant and as a professional ceremony provider.^[4]: 157 There had occasionally been secular funeral ceremonies before this date, but they were extremely rare and informal, e.g. some words spoken at the graveside by members of the Communist party. In general, funerals were considered to be the province of clergy - even for unbelievers. For example, many funerals for non-believers were simply the playing of music.^[4]: 151

Dally Messenger III records that this first celebrant funeral was for Helen Francis (née Grieves) on 2 July 1975 at the Le Pine Funeral Parlour in Ferntree Gully, a suburb of Melbourne in the state of Victoria. Helen Francis was a young woman who had engaged Messenger as a celebrant for her wedding to Roy Francis some four weeks previously.^[4]: 157 Roy Francis convinced Messenger that just as his wife was entitled to a civil celebrant marriage, she was similarly entitled to a civil celebrant funeral. Some 200 people attended and many urged Messenger to continue the work as "much more important than weddings". Messenger credits Dennis Perry, then brother in law of Helen Francis, as being a decisive influence.^[9]

The few marriage celebrants of that time (1975-1976) involved - notably Dally Messenger III and Marjorie Messenger - were in the years and months following (to 1980) joined by non-marriage celebrants Brian McInerney, Diane Storey, Dawn Dickson, Jean Nugent, Ken Woodburn and Jan Tully. A decisive influence later was marriage celebrant, mayor of Croydon and public advocate Rick Barclay. Messenger credits these persons with establishing the profession in Melbourne, and subsequently throughout the western world.^{[4]: 147–192}

In 1980, the media noted that a surge in demand for civil funeral celebrants had become apparent. In an article on Jean Nugent, characterised as the Mornington Peninsula's "first civil funeral celebrant", Tony Harrington headlined that "Business grows for civil hatchers and dispatchers".^[13]: 8

International acknowledgement was provided by a comprehensive article in the US news magazine Time (2004) reporting that in the "liberal" cities of Melbourne, Australia, and Auckland, New Zealand, civil celebrants "conduct substantially more than half of the funerals". It reported that before 1973 only clergy funerals were available to the general public in Australia and New Zealand. The article describes celebrant funerals as "intimate and personalised". But it also cited an alternative point of view by atheist sociologist Mira Crouch who stated that celebrant funerals were "mawkish and sentimental".^[1]

In January 1992 the Funeral Celebrants Association of Australia had become the Australian Institute of Civil Celebrants. This new body was able to welcome marriage celebrants, who were increasingly in disagreement with the marriage celebrants associations, which continued to oppose secular funeral celebrants.^[4]: 91 Rick Barclay was voted in as president, Dally Messenger III as secretary, and Ken Woodburn as treasurer. These three administered the institute until it became the Australian Federation of Civil Celebrants Inc in January 1994.^[16]

Funeral directors in states of Australia other than Victoria still refused to pay celebrants any more than they paid clergy i.e. a low "stipend" or "offering". The results were predictable. With some notable exceptions, very few marriage celebrants were prepared to put the amount of painstaking time and effort into the preparation and checking of funeral ceremonies that was required to reach the Victorian standard. Many funeral directors in these states saw celebrants as a threat to their income and were openly hostile. Several firms declared every member of their staff a celebrant. Others employed an in-house celebrant who was required to perform 13 or 14 funeral ceremonies per week — compelling such employees to resort to one-size-fits-all impersonal ceremonies.^[16] A "celebrant funeral" in these contexts became the worst option available. As author and commentator Robert Larkins put it, speaking of one family's experience:

Geoff was not a religious man so there was no minister of religion present, just a celebrant ... Susanne had found the funeral experience to be deeply dissatisfying.^[19]

As church attendances declined, funeral directors in New South Wales pushed non-church people into organising "family ceremonies". A few families proved capable of this, but most were not.^[16]

As inflation took hold during the years 1990 to 2009 the value of money declined. Funeral directors in Australia, who effectively controlled fees for celebrants, held out against any increases in payments.

The loss of support for celebrants due to the retirements of idealist funeral directors such as Rob and John Allison and Desmond Tobin was keenly felt. The takeover of the small and middle size funeral companies by the multinational company Invocare Limited,^[20] meant there was little interest in any celebrant standards of ceremony. Larkins lists five pages of funeral homes purchased by Invocare Limited^[21] including such names as Simplicity Funerals, White Lady Funerals, Tobin Brothers Funerals and Le Pine Funerals. All these smaller firms kept their original names, thus misleading the public as to ownership.^[22] Notwithstanding the above, a core group of funeral celebrants throughout Australia still provide the public with funeral ceremonies in accordance with the original ideals.^[23]

In the late 1970s, New Zealand followed Australia in establishing funeral celebrants and has had an untroubled history.^[1] The Humanist Society of England and Scotland, after many visits to Australia in the 1980s, established a wide network of quality funeral celebrants characterised by a strong non-religious stance.^[24]

The Institute of Civil Funerals (IoCF), on the other hand, has a more family-centred approach and its members include as little or as much religion as requested.

The IoCF is the oldest funeral celebrant organisation in the UK (founded 2004) and the only one with professional institute status. Membership of IoCF indicates that a celebrant has studied and achieved the highest accredited qualification currently awarded - the Level 3 Diploma in funeral celebrancy. Training for this qualification is available only through Civil Ceremonies Ltd, rated outstanding by OFSTED,^[25] and through Green Fuse and signifies that a celebrant has had professional training and has passed rigorous assessment.

Others in the UK have set themselves up as civil funeral celebrants based on the Australian/Victorian model. They are gaining wide acceptance particularly funeral celebrants trained by the United Kingdom Society of Celebrants.

Celebrant training in the UK has not really progressed over recent years, with some core providers still using the original Australian training model along with outdated and religious based terminologies.

New training organisations are emerging that bring a new outlook on celebrant training producing a new generation of celebrants.

The Celebrant Foundation and Institute in the US, established by graduates of the Australian-based International College of Celebrancy in 2003, has emerged as the leading organisation in training and educating civil celebrants in the US. Originally a force for secular wedding and naming ceremonies, since 2009 some civil celebrants in the US have become more involved in high standard funeral ceremonies.^[26]