Members of the British Humanist Association (BHA) conducted Humanist funerals, weddings and baby naming ceremonies for their friends and acquaintances even before the association emerged in its current formation in 1967. Amongst the pioneering ‘officiants’ (as they tended to be called) were Nigel Collins, who first co-ordinated BHA officiants into a national network and who edited the anthology Seasons of Life; Jane Wynne Willson, who wrote Funerals Without God, Sharing the Future and New Arrivals; and Barbara Smoker, author of Humanism, and other free-thinking titles besides. Their books continue to be bought, widely-consulted and used, especially by the growing numbers of people who wish to celebrate significant life events with no reference to religion or superstition.

Today, the BHA’s network of 260 trained and accredited Humanist celebrants (as they now tend to be called) extends across England and Wales, at ‘Humanist Ceremonies’. The network is managed by the Ceremonies Management Committee (CMC), a body consisting of elected celebrants and two appointed BHA Trustees, whose aim is to provide a Humanist ceremony to anyone who wants one. To this end, expanding the network so that a BHA celebrant is within everyone’s easy reach, enhancing training, mentoring and professional development so that the quality of our ceremonies is consistently impressive, and promoting Humanist Ceremonies to raise people’s awareness, are immediate priorities.

This more organised and focussed emphasis on growth and development has sometimes felt uncomfortable for celebrants who might favour more organic or happenstance progress. But it’s favoured by those in Humanist Ceremonies who acknowledge the characteristics and consequences of a rapidly changing context.

A survey commissioned by the BHA in 2006 (Ipsos/MORI) showed that at least 36 percent of the UK population lived according to broad Humanist principles. Church attendance is declining. Civil marriages in register offices outnumber church weddings and between them the Catholic Church and the Church of England have seen christenings decline by 61percent, in England, over the last 45 years. So far, so good, Humanists might suppose.

Nevertheless when it comes to a significant life event, tradition and familiarity still exert a powerful hold: for many, a religious ceremony remains the ‘default’ option. Apart from some resonant liturgy, a ‘place of worship’ can provide at the very least a convenient venue and at best a photogenic backdrop.

For second, even third generation immigrants, the religious customs of parents and grandparents form a strong cultural adhesive from which it is very difficult, and painful, to pull away.

But perhaps more significant than the tug of convention is the wide range of choices available, or created, by those for whom religion is now an irrelevance.

Three generations can now take for granted having and exerting choice. This extends beyond a seemingly limitless range of yoghurt flavours, exotic pre-cooked ready meals or high-street fashion to lifestyles, life- stances and life events. The fact that we are now beginning to debate physician-assisted dying, is in itself a remarkable indication of how far the boundaries of our human agency, choice and decision-making have pushed back the categories of ‘Thou Shalt’, or ‘Thou Shalt Not’ , which went so rarely questioned in the past.

It’s inevitable that with choice as one of the givens for the ‘baby-boomer’ generation, and with the inspiring examples set by pioneering BHA officiants, all sorts of non-religious ceremonies are now on offer – at least in England and Wales. Our Scottish celebrant colleagues, with the Humanist Society of Scotland, are enjoying massive take up of their Humanist funerals as relatively new kids on the block and as the pre-eminent alternative. And, of course, they’ve succeeded in changing Scottish marriage law so that Scotland is one of those few enlightened countries where a Humanist marriage has full legal status. But in England and Wales, Humanist Ceremonies have conducted a relatively meagre 1 per cent of funerals for the past couple of years, even though requests for non-religious funerals are growing. Almost 50 years after its genesis, the BHA’s Humanist Ceremonies faces competition not just from established religions but from any and all of the following: register offices in the government’s local authorities looking to boost another ‘income-generation stream’; celebrants trained by Civil Ceremonies, a limited company; ‘Jesus- lite’ vicars who find their pensions even more wanting than their stipends; myriad individuals ready to make your occasion ‘one to remember’, and sometimes BHA officiants who for various reasons decided to go their own way.

No doubt, this proliferation of alternatives is no bad thing; a thousand flowers blooming certainly brighten the view. Human beings have always celebrated significant stages of human life – arrival, commitment to a shared journey, and then, departure – and will continue to do so.

After all, performing these rituals is one of the defining features of what it means to be human.

There will always be ceremonies. For us, now, the challenge is to put Humanism at the forefront of ceremonies, to raise Humanist Ceremonies above the crowd of choices, to ensure the number of our inspiring celebrants increases, that the quality of their ceremonies is second to none and that their reach extends to touch the hearts and minds of more people – all of whom will need a ceremony of one kind or another to celebrate various points in their richly human lives. In short, pioneering is never over.

Tana Wollen is Head of Ceremonies, British Humanist Association