Through ceremonies, we formally celebrate the changes that happen in our lives. They allow us to share our significant milestones and events with our friends and families. Ceremonies also give the community an opportunity to show its support and give its blessing.
Ceremonies such as weddings and baby namings allow us to celebrate our love for the person who joins our life, while funerals and memorial services allow us to express our love for the person who leaves our life. Other significant events and changes in our lives such as a graduation or a significant birthday can also be celebrated with a ceremony.
Baby Naming Ceremony
There is no higher ability, nothing nearer to divine, than the ability to create new life.No gift is closer to perfect than the gift of a newborn child.
The arrival of a new family member is a wonderful event and it is traditional to welcome babies into the family with a ceremony. This may be a religious ceremony such as a Baptism or Christening or it may be an informal get-together of the family members. In either case, it usually involves wetting the baby's head!
Many parents are choosing to have Naming ceremonies for their babies. Naming ceremonies are secular, and are therefore popular with people who are not members of organised religions. They give parents, spiritual parents, relatives and significant others an opportunity to affirm their special relationship with the child and declare their intention to support and guide the child through life.
The child can be any age, although the most popular age is between newborn and eighteen months. Naming ceremonies are also a good way to welcome adopted children or stepchildren into a family.
Farewell to a Soul
When a couple loses a child that has not yet been born, they grieve not only for the life of the child that was never to be, but also for the shattering of the dream.
Approximately one quarter of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. Many parents of stillborn babies are choosing to have funerals for the child, but couples who experience miscarriage rarely mark the passing of their baby. Unfortunately, miscarriage is often kept secret by the couple and consequently, they grieve alone.
Farewell to a Soul ceremonies allow couples to express their grief with the support of their loved ones to help them restore hope for the future. Lisa offers this as a free service to clients because she has seen the devastating effects of miscarriage and wants to help change community attitudes towards it.
Commitment Ceremonies
A person does not fall in love with a man or a woman;
a person falls in love with a soul.
Commitment Ceremonies are a beautiful way to formally declare your love for each other and celebrate the union that the two souls have already formed. The ceremony has many similarities to a wedding but is not a legal marriage under the Marriage Act 1961.
