Join Your Friends in Unholy Matrimony: Humanist Institute Offers Wedding Officiant Training Online

With an increasing demand for non-religious wedding celebrants in the U.S., formal online wedding ceremony training for is now available through The Humanist Institute’s Continuum for Humanist Education. The course is available to current humanist celebrants as well as those who are considering becoming one.

The Humanist Institute decided to jump in and fill the growing need for online training that has resulted from a steady increase in certified humanist celebrants through the Humanist Society, the AHA-affiliated group that has been certifying celebrants for over 70 years. More courses for additional humanist celebrant services are planned for the future.

In addition, the AHA erected a new billboard in Moscow, ID in November to familiarize the public with the opportunity of becoming a non-religious celebrant through the Humanist Society, which added a streamlined online application system earlier this year. The billboard’s message includes a wedding ceremony image and reads “Join Your Friends In Holy Matrimony,” with the word holy struck out and the web address humanistweddings.org.

“Everyone at The Humanist Institute is excited about offering this new course not only to current humanist celebrants, but to anyone who wants to learn about how to conduct a successful wedding ceremony,” said Humanist Institute Executive Director Kristin Wintermute. “This addition to the other courses offered by the Continuum of Humanist Education is the next step in our ongoing efforts to bring humanist education opportunities to the public.” The multi-part non-religious wedding course covers areas that include the theoretical understanding of weddings, the role of the celebrant, wedding preparation, what goes into creating vows, different elements of a wedding ceremony, and more. Details about all the courses offered by The Continuum for Humanist Education can be found at cohe.humanistinstitute.org. More information about the Humanist Institute can be found at humanistinstitute.org and the Humanist Society at humanist-society.org.