WHAT QUALITIES DO YOU NEED AS A CELEBRANT?

What qualities can you think of that a Celebrant needs to bring to the table? Although initially the role of a wedding celebrant seems markedly different from that of a funeral celebrant, I would suggest that some qualities are universal.

The first thing that always comes to mind, and this is more a way of being, is a love of people. A fascination for how we all interact. What is the spark that enables us to connect with one another? To engage with that in your everyday life is certainly a prime quality for Celebrancy. If you automatically enjoy the different ways of communicating, you will notice reactions and reach out to others.


A desire to help others and make a difference is going to be a key asset. In either situation, you will be the main protagonist in the moment and everybody will look to you to lead the way - through the structure of the ceremony and the way it is conducted.

And here is a big difference between other ceremonies and a Celebrant led one - the ability to write and structure words in a meaningful way. In both scenarios you are telling a story, whether it is the final story of somebody's life or the story of new beginnings. I know for some people this is the most challenging part and you can feel the accountability of that very keenly, however, the more interest you take in others, the easier that will be. Which brings us onto being a good listener. Picking up on the significant things people may say will make your role easier to enact as you assimilate these into how you conduct a service.

A sense of humour will always help keep perspective, even in the most difficult of moments. It is unlikely to be appropriate to have a good belly laugh in either situation, but taking out the intensity by gentle humour will bring much needed relief and certainly, when reviewing a ceremony, helps keep away the 'categorical cats'. (That is my expression for people who are so literal that they cannot get a perspective on the bigger picture, and, often unwittingly, create huge intensity and heaviness around everything. One will of course encounter those).

Lying at the heart of everything we do, has to be kindness and tolerance. These qualities within us help temper any situation because we act out of love. Quite simply that level of understanding is a protector for yourself too. We all have days when things don't quite gel or we react disproportionately, and to be able to spot that in others, helps as we seek to console or work with them.

Anybody can become a Celebrant. The training will highlight how vital this role is becoming, and so my final addition for now, is to say that well developed personal organisational skills are worth having! The worst case scenario is losing vital information or confusing people and names. It does not bear thinking about the consequences of that one!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Imagine!

 Imagine John Lennon’s song might have been a political statement, yet, within it he invites pictures to swirl around your head as you think about the concepts. He plays into the richness of being human, the ability to use imagination, and this is also the world of singing. There has been an alarming trend to take imagination out of singing teaching and replace it with the bare reality of what is happening. How many lessons do I witness where, once again, the singer is taken back to some technical aspect when they have the ability to sing well enough, and what is really needed is the freeing of the imagination for the next ‘stage’? Somehow it is as if we never get beyond that; we can’t let the singer grow up. There is a credible argument that not everybody thinks the same way, therefore what is valid for the teacher, may be a vacuum for the other learner in the room. Using more neutral, less colourfully imaginative ideas is more helpful. As a former classroom teacher, I could concu...
Read more

Unwrapping the voice

Image
I often get asked what genre I teach in singing and I usually say classical and music theatre. I now think this is a limited and loaded question! People, naturally, make decisions on my response, yet what I teach is much more useful.  I teach how to make a voice function. I teach the mechanics of vocal operation so that the singer is empowered to make a choice as to which genre they wish to pursue. There is nothing more powerful than knowing how to make a sound that is stable and secure; knowing that when you open your mouth, that sound is available to you.  The setting up of a voice is the longest and most complex element in voicing.   Understanding the subtleties of muscular and cellular interchange to create the widest palate of sounds you can find. More importantly, gaining control so that the emerging sound is smooth and clear and at your command. That involves practising across the whole of the vocal range of which you are capable and understanding that this will al...
Read more

Flippin' singing teachers

Image
  Flippin' singing teachers There are some phenomenal singing teachers and singers out there and long may that continue. Therefore, I am very sad when students end up at my door who have been intimidated, have lost confidence and feel they can no longer sing at all. It’s one thing to reach the requirements of an exacting music course, but it is quite another to be undermined by somebody who has lost their integrity when it comes to teaching (if they ever had it). My first degree is in education, back in the day when that was a qualification fit for purpose. I have always retained much of what is the beating heart of excellent teaching: working with what you have in front of you; listening to your student; seeking endlessly different ways to explain something; steering a course through the multiple aspects of using your subject; reading around the subject; having empathy as a core skill; seeking knowledge but also acknowledging what your own strengths are that you bring; supporti...
Read more