The Celebrant Foundation & Institute is a 501 non-profit educational organization incorporated in New Jersey. CF&I is dedicated to the education, on line training and certification of professional officiants known and registered as certified Life-Cycle Celebrants ®. Celebrant Foundation & Institute was founded in 2001 and has headquarters in Montclair, New Jersey and on line at . It is a member of the International Federation of Celebrants.
What is a Celebrant: Certified Life-Cycle Celebrants® are educated and trained by the Celebrant Foundation & Institute to serve their community via personalized ceremonies, including the following life milestones for individuals, couples, families and communities: weddings, coupling and partnering ceremonies, renewal of vows, coming of age/rites of passages, baby welcomings/namings/blessings, adoptions, elder-wisdom/sage, memorials and end-of-life celebrations, living funerals, memorials, retirements, healing and transition ceremonies, divorce/uncoupling ceremonies, work related ceremonies, seasonal/nature based and community ceremonies. Certified Life-cycle Celebrants® are professional ceremony officiants who co-create personalized ceremonies and rituals to serve basic needs of society and the individual. The celebrant and their client collaborate to create one-of-a-kind ceremonies that reflect the clients’ beliefs, philosophy of life and personalities; not the Celebrant's.] The ceremonies belongs to the honoree and a copy is given to the client as part of their personal legacy and history. New Career. In 2007, the Celebrant profession was named by CNN and Money Magazine as the #3 best job for those over 50 and ready for a change. The need for Celebrants in Society: Celebrancy answers the call to the increasing need of people throughout the world who come from diverse cultures, beliefs and backgrounds who wish to have a ceremony that expresses who they are at the very core whether they are religious or not, performed by professionally trained certified Life-cycle Celebrants. The Pew Research Studies year after year show that a growing population of people worldwide, 70% of or more, state that they are not connected to a religion; many belong to an interfaith or non-religious people community and/or they do not consider themselves as religious. This demographic seeks and relies on certified Celebrants to mark the milestones in their lives in a genuine way. CF&I Mission: CF&I’s mission is to pioneer the widespread use of relevant, customized ceremonies to honor the fullness of the human experience across the lifecycle. CF&I seeks to increase opportunities to affirm and celebrate milestones and transitions for people from all walks of life through the training, certification, and ongoing support of professionally certified Life-cycle Celebrants®, and by providing public education, outreach, and advocacy. CF&I Celebrant Certification Training and Education: The Celebrant Foundation & Institute offers educational programs taught via live, real time, web-based classes. Individuals looking for a change in career either as an independent, full-time, or part-time job have taken courses at the Celebrant Foundation in the pursuit of starting a career as a certified Life-Cycle Celebrant. Celebrant students follow the CF&I interdisciplinary, Jungian-based education program that focuses on the history and art of ceremony, ritual, rite of passage and world religions and cultural traditions, public speaking, ceremony writing and presentation and business via live, distance learning, online) classes taught by CF&I faculty. The certificate courses are: Wedding Celebrancy, Funeral/End of Life Celebrancy and Ceremonies Across the Life-Cycle Celebrancy, Healings and Transitions - and an advanced course: Master of Celebrancy. Following graduation, Celebrant trained students through the Celebrant Foundation & Institute become certified and earn the registered title of: certified Life-Cycle Celebrant®. Celebrant graduate alumni become part of their local or regional Celebrant alumni chapter community which supports them and their practice. via distance learning classes taught by the Celebrant Foundation faculty. Following graduation, those trained through the Celebrant Foundation & Institute become certified and earn the title of Life-Cycle Celebrant. Certified Celebrant Occupation/Profession: Celebrancy is a growing occupation worldwide. It originated in the 1960s in Australia and New Zealand and later took hold in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Caribbean, Europe, Malaysia, Africa and Asia. The Celebrant profession has been reported as a top “Encore Career” by CNN and Money Magazine, and a “best job” in Parade Magazine and other media for those over 40 who wish to have a fulfilling career that is both meaningful and viable. In United States, in 2014 the state of New Jersey became the first state to pass the law that includes certified “Civil Celebrants” to legally perform weddings. Presently, the law is in the process of being passed and included into different states' marriage acts throughout the US. Who Becomes a Celebrant: As a retirement career, supplement career or change of career, the CF&I offers training to become a professional ritual maker and ceremony specialist called a: certified Life-Cycle Celebrant®. The Celebrant career attracts both women and men, mostly 40 years of age and older, who enjoy and are proficient at: writing, public speaking, business and are open to creating and officiating or presiding over ceremonies for people from all walks of life. Many Celebrant graduates have backgrounds as: teachers, health and wellness professionals, social workers/therapists and life coaches, end-of-life professionals, wedding professionals, lawyers, ministers/clergy, librarians, business entrepreneurs and artists.
