Danna D. Schmidt
Master Life-Cycle Celebrant®
Ordained Wedding Officiant
Funerals/Memorials Specialist
Certified Grief Educator/Tender
ADEC-Certified Thanatologist®
What does your Certified Life-Cycle Celebrant® designation mean & how does it differ from other Celebrants?
You are bound to encounter all kinds of business card titles in your search for your just-right Celebrant. Many churches have adopted the term to refer to lay leaders who assist in presiding over worship services in the absence of or in tandem with the Minister.
Some will call themselves an Officiant or Celebrant, others will specialize as Wedding or Funeral Celebrants, and many will highlight their interfaith, non-denominational or humanist leanings. A good number will have come to this work without any training or related experience. Several will have taken some variation of a three-to-five-day retreat intensive from their humanist association, religious affiliate, funeral provider or via the In-Sight Institute.
The gold-standard of all professional Celebrancy training worldwide, however, is that offered by the Celebrant Foundation & Institute (CF&I). CF&I is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing the most comprehensive training and education for Celebrants. Students are schooled in the art and science of ceremonies to mark every significant moment and milestone in the lives of individuals, couples and communities alike. And make no mistake – clever ceremony design, weaving, and placement/ordering of elements is both an art and a science.
Minimum certification ranges anywhere from 8 months to an average of 1.5 years of ceremonial studies and immersion. Certification and course offerings include Foundations of Celebrancy, Weddings, Funerals and Memorials, Ceremonies for Healing, and Ceremonies for Families and Children Across the Lifespan, and the Masters in Celebrancy program I completed in 2018, with a research focus on healing ceremonies and communal grief rituals.
As a former History of Religions scholar at the University of Calgary, I can attest, without hesitation, that CF&I’s myth and ritual coursework is strongly grounded in the same anthropological pedagogy. I proudly fly the CF&I flag and assert my triple certification in recognition of their stellar work and continued advocacy on behalf of 3,000 Celebrants worldwide. We have performed more than a million ceremonies these last 40 years.
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