In July 2008 when the Registrar General for Scotland announced that Humanist weddings were now the fourth most popular form of marriage in the country, the media had a field day. The best comment of all came from the philosopher and columnist Julian Baggini, who wrote in The Herald newspaper, “Weddings up 64%” is probably the most unlikely headline of the year, but add one word and it’s completely true. That word is ‘Humanist.’”

When, just over three years earlier, Scotland joined the other five countries in the world where Humanist weddings are legal, it would be an exaggeration to say that there was rejoicing throughout the land, but if there was any wailing and gnashing of teeth in the outer darkness, it was being done very quietly. There were 83 Humanist weddings in the course of 2005 but only a very rash statistician would have predicted the speed with which the public would choose to say, “We do!”

As well as being the treasurer of the HSS and the National Ceremonies Convenor, Gordon Ross is a statistician by training, but even he was taken by surprise. “I knew in my gut that they were going to be big – I just didn’t know how big! I predicted that we’d reach 1,000 by 2009, but we passed that figure in 2008 so we’re already ahead of ourselves!” If his predictions are right, Humanist ceremonies will overtake Catholic ones by 2010, placing the HSS third in line after the Registrars and the Church of Scotland. We’ve come a long way in what seems like a very short time, but in fact the story began almost thirty years ago. Ivan Middleton takes up the tale.

“The very first Humanist wedding ceremony in Scotland took place in 1976, but of course that couple and the hundreds more who followed them had to have a Civil ceremony as well, so the campaign to legalise Humanist weddings really started back then. These early forays included correspondence between the Registrar General for Scotland and our then Secretary, the late Fergus Watt and some individual members also approached politicians directly.”

In 1994, The HSS National Executive Committee formally began a campaign to seek legal recognition. Sadly this initiative was unproductive, but by then several HSS celebrants had performed wedding celebrations; Robin Wood even appeared on a television programme and with a couple, re-enacted their ceremony for the benefit of the cameras.

In 2000 the campaign was re-launched and a petition presented to the Scottish Parliament’s Petitions Committee. It was heard on 6th February 2001 and Ivan, who by then was the Secretary, appeared on behalf of the society to answer questions. “While it seemed we had the politicians’ sympathy, they chose to refer it for legal advice, which meant in effect that no change was proposed,” he said.

The NEC considered seeking a couple who were prepared to contest their right to a legal Humanist ceremony, but after taking legal advice concluded that even if such a challenge were successful, it could be appealed. As a protracted legal battle could have risked our financial viability, we decided instead to go back to Route One and sought meetings with The Registrar General for Scotland.

We wanted to persuade the Registrar General that we were capable of conducting a marriage ceremony in a professional manner so we gave him and his staff copies of ‘Sharing the Future’ as well as examples of our scripts. To allay their concern that “If we say yes to you who will be next?” we also had to convince him that our beliefs were quite unique and could be seen as separating us from other groupings.

The Scottish Parliament decided to make civil marriage ceremonies more widely available and allowed local Registrars throughout the country to licence alternative venues such as hotels and castles. The new legislation was due to come into effect on 24th April 2002 and as it would clearly lead to a great deal of extra work, the GRO asked us to give him two years until it all settled down before reviewing our request. While this was another setback, it was also an unexpected opportunity.

In response to this expansion of their services, the Registrar in Edinburgh advertised for supply registrars. Ivan was fortunate to be selected as one of the ten new temporary registrars and received training before conducting many civil marriage ceremonies. This gave him the opportunity on about six occasions to ask the Registrar General for authorisation to conduct a legal ceremony and follow it with a Humanist celebration. It was a very special pleasure for him when, in 1999 and 2001, he conducted Humanist celebrations for the weddings of both his sons.

In April 2005, Duncan McNiven, the new Registrar General for Scotland got in touch and invited Ivan and Charles Douglas to come in for a meeting: to put it mildly they were surprised. As Ivan said, “We went along expecting nothing but Duncan McNiven was incredible.

He said, ‘I’ve read all your arguments, I agree with every one of them and I will authorise Legal Humanist Marriages to be conducted by approved HSS Celebrants from the 1st of June 2005’. I was falling off my seat!

As he wasn’t a celebrant, Charles Douglas wasn’t quite so emotionally involved and he asked a very important question. He said, ‘Is it important that the couples are members of the society?’ and the Registrar General said, ‘yes it is’ and that is how we came to be given permission to conduct Humanist ceremonies for Humanists. We ask all couples to join the society, but as long as we can say is that at least one of the two is a member, then that is sufficient.

Effectively, The Registrar granted us the same powers as religious celebrants. We can conduct weddings anywhere ‘safe and dignified’. We have to ensure that the couple each separately and clearly accepts the other as their lawful wedded husband/wife. But couples have the freedom to include whichever prose, music and poetry they desire. Even more importantly they are encouraged to create their own vows and can involve their family and friends in doing readings.”

Only two months later, on the 18th of June 2005, Ivan was lucky to find himself conducting the first wedding under the new regime when Martin Reijns (27) and Karen Watts (29) had their marriage ceremony at Edinburgh Zoo. Ironically, although they lived in Edinburgh, neither of them were Scots; Martin was from the Netherlands and Karen from Ireland. When the wedding ceremony finished, Ivan and the happy couple emerged to find three camera crews and twenty snappers from the nation’s press waiting to celebrate the moment.

As the BBC reported, “Scotland’s Registrar General Duncan McNiven said: “UK legislation requires us to interpret the British law, including Scottish marriage legislation, in a way that is consistent with the European Convention on Human Rights. The Prince of Wales used that to put beyond doubt the fact that it was okay for him to have a civil marriage and we are using it to put beyond doubt that Humanists can legally marry people.’”

Martin and Karen said, “This is a great development for non-religious people who, like us, believe that marriage is more than just a legal bonding and therefore want a ceremony that’s more personal than a standard civil ceremony. We wrote our own ceremony, which allowed us to express our thoughts and feelings freely. We’re excited to be the first ones to be able to have a Humanist marriage ceremony that is legally binding.”

Until that time, the HSS had conducted about 80 celebrations each year and had only around 1 000 members. As word of our legal status spread, the demand increased exponentially and we very soon realised that we would require more celebrants to be authorised. In 2006 – the first full year of Humanist weddings – we conducted 474 marriages. In 2007 that number rose to 710 and 2008 saw a further rise to just over 1000.

In 2006, another 8 celebrants were authorised by the Registrar General and since then we have gone back to him each year to make further requests for an increase in our numbers. As a result, from the 1st of April 2009, there will be 51 celebrants able to solemnise marriages anywhere in Scotland that is ‘safe and dignified.’ The most recent training course was uniquely designed for would-be celebrants from the more remote parts of the Highlands and Islands who were trained during a week- long course to conduct both funerals and weddings and when their period of mentoring is finished, there will be 58 celebrants authorised to conduct weddings and 78 celebrants in all.

Legal weddings have been very important to the society in a number of ways; every week of the year, they demonstrate to hundreds of people that Humanism is an attractive, positive life stance and their growing popularity means that more and more people are becoming aware of Humanism as a philosophy. That has led in turn to an increase in the number of non-religious people who choose to describe themselves as Humanist rather than simply atheist or agnostic. Our membership at the time of writing stands at around 4 500.

Legal weddings are also important to the society financially. At the Annual General Body Meeting of the HSS in 2001, the then treasurer Marilyn Jackson (who has recently become a celebrant herself), suggested that celebrants give 10 percent of their fees to support our efforts in training new celebrants and in campaigning for secular education and a secular state. That suggestion was adopted and as the number of our ceremonies has grown, so has our income.

The celebrants of the HSS continue to take the view that we should make our ceremonies affordable to all, so our fee for a funeral for example is only £100 – less than the average spray of flowers on top of a coffin – and for a legal marriage, £250, a tiny proportion of the cost of a typical wedding.

Legal weddings accounted for only 27 percent of our ceremonies in 2008, but they contributed 49 percent of our ceremonies income. We conduct more than twice as many Funerals, but they contribute only an equal proportion (49 percent); in 2008, ceremonies provided the HSS with 36 percent of its annual income.

The rise in our income has allowed us not only to train many more celebrants, but also to institute new courses and most importantly, create a set of professional standards backed by a peer review scheme. This is a two-way process of evaluation that has been welcomed by the great majority of celebrants as a positive, supportive and helpful way to share good practice. The scheme currently applies to those celebrants who conduct funerals and when that rolling process is complete it will be extended to weddings as well.

The impact of the legalisation of Humanist weddings in Scotland should not be underestimated. Weddings have brought the philosophy of Humanism into the lives of thousands of ordinary men and women, and as our numbers swell and our ability to campaign increases, our voice will grow louder. Ivan Middleton speaks for us all when he says, “It’s a privilege to do what we do; we do it well and I’m very proud to have played a part in our success.”

Tim Maguire is celebrant and media officer of the HSS