From time to time, we run training for funeral and wedding celebrants. The next courses are:

Wedding Celebrant Training, Monday 10th February 2025 - Friday 14th February 2025

9:30am - 4:30pm at The Whisky Bond, 2 Dawson Road, Glasgow, G4 9SS.

Wedding Celebrant Training, 5 Days in-person, £1250 total (£250 non-refundable deposit to book).

With an opportunity for those with the right skills and beliefs to enter our mentor programme and join our celebrant network.

(Max. 12 places available.)

2025 Autumn Funeral Celebrant Training

This training is 5 days over 3 weekends, 9:30am - 4:30pm at The Whisky Bond, 2 Dawson Road, Glasgow, G4 9SS.

Saturday 6th September & Sunday 7th September - role & ritual

Saturday 13th September & Sunday 14th September - clients & scripts

Saturday 4th October: ceremony delivery & compliance for joining

Cost: £995 (training only)

With an opportunity for those with the right skills and beliefs to enter our mentor programme and join our celebrant network. The joining fee is £595 for those who would like to join us who are able to meet our standards.

The joining fee includes: A personal mentoring plan with experienced celebrant and ceremony shadowing and visitation depending on your requirements, 1 year affiliation, 1 year insurance, interview & admin to add profile to website.

After 1 year if you wish to continue the affiliation fee is £15 (funeral only) or £30 (weddings/ weddings & funerals) per month + annual insurance.

(Max. 12 places available.)

Bookings & Enquiries

Contact James with any questions and to book your place.

CELEBRANT TRAINING

WEDDINGS

FUNERALS

HELP OTHERS CRAFT A MEANINGFUL CEREMONY

With our celebrant training

craft and shape a ceremony
lead a ceremony
gain the skills to be a celebrant

What you'll get out of the course

Learn about ritual in society and the role of a funeral/wedding
Learn about the rules and options for major life events
Understand how to bring others’ stories to life
Learn how to facilitate and co-create ceremonies
Craft a ritual with confidence
Understand your legal and ethical role
Practice delivering a ceremony
Learn how to shift atmosphere in a ceremony
Learn how to work with families to co-create events.
Get skills, tips and resources for crafting scripts for different scenarios.

On successful completion of the course, you will have a deeper understanding of what it takes to become a celebrant.

The right candidates will be invited to join our small, supportive network of celebrants.

Is this the course for you?

This course is perfect if you are:

a good listener: empathic and open to difference
a good communicator: written, spoken, unsaid
able to present well
good at building meaningful relationships
person-centred
share our Humanist values. (Not sure? Do the quiz.)
Further answers to FAQ’s below

Eligibility & Booking

We select candidates for the course who appear to show the right attributes and skills for celebrancy, and of course - you must share our Humanist beliefs if you wish to to be able to join us. Following successful completion of the course, eligible participants will be invited to apply. Some will take a year or more to join us, but here is a timeline of a typcial potential progression to join us based on the Wedding Celebrant course;

Step 1. Training Course. (February)

Step 2. Interview, Mentor plan and Ceremony. (March)

Step 3. Declarations, Disclosure, Compliance and Applications to Trustees. (June)

Step 4. Added to our group insurance policy to join us as a self-employed Humanist Celebrant. (July)

As A Quiet Revolution is a Humanist charity. We are keen to promote diversity and inclusion.

If you wish to contact us to book a place on our course, please tell us about your passions, your beliefs and what led you to find us. We can’t wait to meet you.

For queries or booking please email us to find out more.

COURSE CONTENT: Wedding Training

DAY 1: All about ROLE

Introductions, building rapport, active listening, interview/note-taking, range of skills (communication, planning, facilitation, legal knowledge), developing your signature style.

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DAY 2: All about RITUAL

The what, why, how of ritual; ceremony structure and options.

Physical exercises - grounding, articulating, amplifying, addressing an audience, indoor/outdoor delivery.

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DAY 3: All about COUPLES

Enquiries, meeting with couples, chemistry check, couple-centred planning, legal guidance, atypical couples, couples scenarios discussion.

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DAY 4: All about SCRIPTS

Practising interviewing and script writing. Creating a personal ceremony. How to capture a couple in their words.

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DAY 5: All about DELIVERY

Delivering scripts. Script discipline. Compliance.

COURSE LEADERS

The course leaders for our last course are all celebrants with A Quiet Revolution. Barbara co-founded and ran the charity from its beginnings in 2016. Jude, Yva and James took over steering the ship in March 2023. We work together as a team to deliver ceremonies for A Quiet Revolution and to deliver this course for you.

Barbara co-founded A Quiet Revolution.

She is a consultant and celebrant. She works with clients in the arts, public sector and third sector bringing skills in place-making, service design, strategy, planning and user experience. She is a Director of Caledonia Funeral Aid, Scotland’s only not-for-profit funeral director and advisory service. She is a Director of DGUnlimited, Dumfries & Galloway’s arts advocacy agency and a Director of Outpost Arts creative wellbeing powerhouse in Langholm.

Barbara has a double award-winning Masters in Design Innovation from Glasgow School of Art, focussing her outputs on transforming 21st Century Funerals. She innovated the UK’s first platform for end-of-life planning, Final Fling, introduced the first Death Cafes to Scotland and is a qualified Funeral Director. She is qualified in Counselling Skills, Life Coaching and Executive Coaching.

Jude - I’m an independent performing artist and celebrant with A Quiet Revolution. Creative director of The Letter J, vocal and creative coach - facilitating workshops in many spheres - inviting folks to show up in their voice, body and bodies of work. My work is rooted in a love of life’s wild beauty - relationships, connections, community and transformation.

My journey with celebrancy began [as it often does] when death came calling - losing loved ones in quick succession. I wanted to become part of the answer to some of life’s big questions:

How can we do ceremonies better?
Where’s the loving line in storytelling to honour those gone and those going on?
What's the rightful intersection of tone, atmosphere, performance, and ritual?
How can I bring my creative/collaborative experience to the ceremony space?
How may standing closer to the reality of death invite us to be kinder in life?

James’s journey to become a Humanist Celebrant started with his own Humanist Wedding in 2014.

James loves to get to know couples and really relishes the challenge of making couples the centre of their ceremony.

For the last ten years James has been a Humanist Celebrant gaining a treasure trove of knowledge and tips for best practice.

James has a degree in English from Glasgow University and has studied celebrancy in England and Scotland.

As current A Quiet Revolution Admin, James deals with all compliance issues, so is a key contact for queries around joining.

James is also responsible for arranging biscuits for training sessions which is a role he takes very seriously.

Yva comes from a background in language and literature and is passionate about the telling of stories in our milestone moments. Having worked for 15 years in the education sector as an English Teacher and Teaching Mentor, Yva now applies her skills in a full time Celebrant role. Having conducted over 800 funerals, she has extensive experience in end-of-life storytelling.

Her path to Celebrancy began with personal experience of leading a family funeral and she believes absolutely that the right words at the right time can create rituals with meaning and with joy.

Yva’s experience as a volunteer Chaplain with the Marie Curie Hospice Team has given her an important insight into end of life planning and the importance of ownership in ceremonies to celebrate a life. Having worked with people from all walks of life, Yva strives to empower people to embrace the richness in their own stories and create funerals which truly celebrate life’s journeys.

Feedback from David Simpson, 2024

“The celebrant training helped me consolidate my existing celebrant experience, but it also enabled me to develop a much deeper appreciation of the Human side of what a celebrant does. It not only enabled me to be better in my role, but it also helped me live a more present and positive life, improving so many aspects of the everyday.

Having gone on to complete the wedding training a couple of years later, enabled me to be able to offer the important and often magical act, of solemnising a marriage. Again it is an amazing thing to be able to offer to people in my community that share Humanist thinking and beliefs and I am so looking forward to conducting my first legal marriage at the end of September 2024.”

Feedback from Katie Quinn, 2024

“The marriage celebrant training with AQR was a wonderful experience for me. It was a week full of joy. I got everything I was expecting and all I was hoping for, plus some unexpected bonuses.

I was expecting a qualification, information on practicalities and legalities and support from the organisation in taking the next step from qualification to practice. TICK ✔️

I was hoping for some real life experiences and stories, to meet like minded people, make some friends and connections and to feel confident and empowered in taking the next steps towards conducting ceremonies. TICK ✔️

What I got as a bonus to all this wonderfulness was a renewed perspective on human connection and interaction. Every person, trainers and trainees, approached the week with openness and authenticity. Some of the conversations and experiences that arose in that atmosphere really reminded me of why I was drawn to humanism in the first place, and how powerful empathy, kindness and honesty are.

I've since managed to use the experience not only to move forward as a celebrant but also to make changes in other areas of my life. Most notably in my 9-5 job where I've managed to consciously create (with the support of my manager and the business) a role that fosters communication and connection and improves relationships, and I'm happier in my work than every before as a result..”

FAQs

This is a course that has been put together by celebrants with decades of experience of over a thousand ceremonies to help you be the best celebrant you can be. The focus of the course is to help you on your journey to becoming a Humanist Celebrant, understanding the skills you will need to hone and giving the support network to enable you to feel supported as you begin to practice. It is not certified by an exterior examining body. Feedback from celebrants who have taken the course is excellent.
Every participant who completes the course receives a certificate. We are confident what you learn on the course will stand you in great stead wherever your future leads.
As above. There is a look at all relevant aspects of theory and practice culminating in you delivering a service you have created.
At the conclusion of the course suitable candidates will be given the opportunity to join our celebrant network to continue their celebrant journey.
Mentoring plans are individually tailored, depending on your experience. Those who need to attend ceremonies or shadow will have the opportunity to do so.
We are looking for people with the right skills, the right attitude and the right beliefs to join us.
What skills do I need?
You must be able to present yourself well, to be organised, to manage time keeping and your diary, you must have good listening skills to understand client stories and good written skills
What attitude do I need?
You must have good instincts and be able to work by yourself. You must have a learning attitude and always want to improve with peer sharing and ongoing CPD. You must be able to work with the group towards our common goals.
What beliefs do I need to join you?
Your beliefs must not contradict our own. You must be committed to key Humanist principles of kindness and inclusion. We believe everyone deserves a dignified ceremony.
In the past approximately 75% of participants have been offer the opportunity to join us, but there are no 'targets' for this, it is purely down to what the right fit is.
Following completion of the course, fit and proper participants may be able to join us to conduct legal ceremonies.
We believe the course offers good value. It is an investment in your future. If you want ball-park figures for ceremony fees and insurance costs (etc) to help you make the decision as to whether this is right for you, then please get in touch.
You can pay in instalments up to the course start date.
All course materials will be supplied. All participants receive a folder with a wealth of training information.
We will go over all relevant legislation and our commitment to best practice as a part of the course.
For marriage celebrants there are specific legal requirements.
No. Our celebrant network is made up of self-employed celebrants who are all trained and held to the highest standards. They offer each other on-going peer support and CPD. Celebrants raise donations for the charity, and the charity sets fees and offers governance, oversight and strategic guidance for future planning but we do not operate as an Agency.
You may be able to do this if you are invited to join us after training. To conduct a marriage ceremony you need appropriate skills, training and the support of a belief body. We are a belief body.
Contact James with any questions and to book your place by email at team@aquietrevolution.org or by filling in your details on our Contact Us webpage.