Difference between Non-Religious and Religious Marriage Celebrant

Wedding resource sites (like Oneflare.com and Married.Today) will often have an option to select your Celebrant Type/Prefrence:

• I Dont Mind
• Non-Religious Celebrant
• Religious Celebrant

Couples often think this relates to the type of ceremony.   That is, a Religious Celebrant will only perform a ceremony with religious content.

With the introduction of changes to the Marriage Act which allowed same sex couples to marry, there are now 4 types of Authorised Marriage Celebrants:

• Commonwealth-registered marriage celebrants
• Commonwealth-registered religious marriage celebrants
• Ministers of Religion (Registered with BDM)
• State and Territory Officers

The term Religious Celebrant (or Commonwealth-registered religious marriage celebrant) simply means these celebrants does not have to perform ceremonies that do not align with their own personal religious beliefs, and they must say that they are a religious marriage celebrant in their advertising.      For example, a Religious Marriage Celebrant does not have to perform a same-sex marriage ceremony if this is in conflict with their own religious beliefs.

Mark and Patricia are Non-Religious Marriage Celebrants

We have been registered as Commonwealth-Registered Marriage Celebrants since September 2005.

We are delighted and proud to be able to peform wedding ceremonies for all couples, and tailor these ceremonies to the couples own personal beliefs.   Our ceremonies are modern and do not have any religious context, but should a couple wish to have some religious context or a prayer within their ceremony, then we are happy to introduce this into the ceremony.