The Vision Thing

A Vision for Celebrancy

There are five or six churches on the big hill which exercises dominion over the Victorian country town of Daylesford. All of these communities were once central to a vibrant country society. Ghostly symbols of the past, they no longer breathe their former life and purpose. But they were once brought together by ceremonies.

Half way down the hill the famous Daylesford “Convent”, once fully inhabited by passionately religious devotees, is now a restaurant and a function centre. Close to my Docklands home, one nearby church is a garden nursery, another is a kindergarten, another is a retail Persian carpet warehouse, yet others have been divided into apartments.

These churches once communicated the ideas, the attitudes, and the principles, which society judged at the time as essential for the proper workings of the inner man and woman and thus for society,. Like directional witches’ hats for long distance runners, church ceremonies punctuated the flowtime of existence. They clarified the roadmap to an acceptable, ethical and dignified life.

In addition, their ceremonies contributed to the unseen ingredients of psychological stability, a sense of identity, reassurances of life’s purposes, and the personal sense of self worth.

In the 1970s, fully aware of this intangible loss, the noted businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Gordon Barton lamented publicly – “With what can we replace the Christian churches?”

Into a world where unbelievers were institutionally humiliated, enter Senator Lionel Murphy. Murphy asked the same question as Barton — how can we fill the vacuum?

Murphy understood the power of culture – the complex of habits, values, attitudes, morals, ethics, ideals, and understandings bequeathed to us by our forefathers and mothers. The mysterious power of culture is what drove us along an honourable and ethical roadway.

In 1973 he established civil celebrants. He searched out people to whom he sought to convince of the worth and the art of secular ceremony and rites of passage. He was convinced that personal genuine ceremonies were central to a civilised, stable and happy society. He realised that ceremonies were the time/place setting wherein people seriously communicated. It was in the ceremony that groups of people came together oftentimes for life transitions. It was in the ceremony that they made compacts, that they recognised achievement, that they asserted identity, that they established connections, that they declared love, that they paid tribute, that they expressed grief. In ceremony they expressed, transmitted and reinforced values.

To be powerful and effective, such ceremonies, in his view, had to have impact. This occurred when the ceremony was framed by the visual and performing arts. Great care had to be taken in framing and choosing the poetry, prose, stories, myths, silences, music and song, shared meditations, choreography and symbolism – the components of ceremony. Oh, and it should be in a beautiful interior and exterior place. Beauty is a core essential of powerful ceremony, having always been part of embedding the good in the memory. And, ceremonies, as they always had been, were the bridge between the arts and the people.

Done well, ceremonies bring emotional security, a sense of contentment, inspiration and enriching stability to the participants. Publicly witnessed, reassuring connections and bonding are created. People are assisted to adapt to change.

To understand and carry out this challenging task the civil celebrant had to have a rich skill-set. Murphy is on the record as asserting that the civil celebrant had to be professional, knowledgeable, educated in the humanities, creative, imaginative, inspired, well presented, idealistic, and well practised. The Murphy civil celebrant should be a person inspired to improve the lives of all at a deep and lasting level.

Dally Messenger – 11 June 2022