Rituals of Love: Celebrating Spiritual Milestones and Connections

Evolving Perspectives on Love, Marriage, Life and Death.

Gerrie and Susan Douglas-Scott

Hello!

Quite often the first thing people ask is what is Celebrate People? Who are you? How can you be humanist and spiritual at the same time?

Here is our story so far!

Celebrate People emerged from a number of conversations in the 2000s about the reality of belief plurality in people’s lives and the need to include cultural and spiritual beliefs in heartfelt and authentic ceremonies.

We heard people when they said: “we want a humanist ceremony but we don’t want to be called humanists.”

We knew then that we wanted to offer person-centred ceremonies and services and not one based on an ‘ism’.

Gerrie and Susan Douglas-Scott have conducted thousands of ceremonies since 2003 and 2006 respectively.

In that time, they have heard the requests, needs and wants for rituals from so many families and couples that mean the most to them.

Sometimes (but not always) couples wanted a humanistic ceremony but still wished to include a prayer, a ritual or a spiritual aspect from organised religion or family beliefs.

In 2017 Gerrie and Susan realised that they had to use this collective wisdom and make it a reality.

Hence Celebrate People was born - a multi-belief approach that embraces spiritual and pastoral care and blends peoples needs with humanist values of love, empathy and person centered: ceremonies that fit with what people want and need and reflects what is important to them.

Susan and Gerrie know, through their experience, that people need to be heard, they need to be listened to and in turn this hearing and listening makes for meaningful and personal ceremonies with and for people.

This is why Celebrate People happened and why today it has grown to include an amazing and diverse group of over 30 celebrants who support our values and offer wonderful, meaningful and memorable ceremonies that celebrate life and love.