National ceremonies

There is also still a long way to go to ensure that all other nationally significant civic ceremonies are secular and fully inclusive occasions for everyone in today’s modern and diverse society. Other such ceremonies are still regularly Christian in nature – in spite of most people not being Christians, or Anglicans.

In depth

In England, public ceremonies of national significance are invariably Anglican in nature, often being led by Church of England leaders, and involve a large amount of Anglican readings and prayers. This is despite the fact that only one in eight adults are Anglican, while the majority of British adults are non-religious. There are often roles or readings from other religion or belief leaders, these tend to be comparatively more limited in nature. And in some cases, like at the National Service of Remembrance, there are only Anglican leaders.

In Wales, since 2018, a humanist celebrant has been invited to participate in the National Service of Remembrance for Wales, a ceremony jointly organised by Cardiff Council and the Welsh Government, in partnership with The Royal British Legion. The celebrant is permitted to read a short reading alongside faith representatives, but the service remains predominantly organised and led by the Church in Wales, and is followed by a service at Llandaff Cathedral. We have been asking since 2016 for a review of the format of the service and for involvement in the planning. Local authorities across Wales also conduct their own, mostly Christian-led services.

What we’re doing

For decades we have been speaking out in support of inclusive national ceremonies, but our efforts intensified following the establishment of Defence Humanists in 2010. Our efforts hit a major milestone with the inclusion of a humanist representative – our Chief Executive, Andrew Copson – at the Cenotaph from 2018. The Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government issued a statement announcing this change by commenting, ‘A significant number of people serving in Britain’s military do not prescribe to a particular faith, but many of these will associate with humanist beliefs. It is important that in our quest to create a National Remembrance Service which is reflective of modern Britain, that major belief systems are recognised as well as faiths, including the humanists.’

We regularly correspond with the Government regarding upcoming civil ceremonies and call for these to be fully inclusive of all regardless of religion or belief.

Beyond Westminster, we’ve been working in towns and cities across the UK, in partnership with local humanist and Royal British Legion groups, towards more inclusive ceremonies, with many localities now including humanists to some degree but most still primarily Anglican ceremonies.

National and local Remembrance ceremonies:

Humanist Remembrance ceremony: Our Network Defence Humanists has a sister network recognised internally by the Ministry of Defence as an official internal network – called Humanists and Non-religious in Defence.

Other national ceremonies:

Defence Humanists has also taken part in a number of other remembrance ceremonies – like the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, International Conscientious Objectors Day, World Humanitarian Day, and at national remembrance ceremonies in Belgium, supported by the Belgian Government.

Lorraine Barrett, one of our celebrants conducted the funeral of Rhodri Morgan, the father of Welsh devolution, in the Welsh Assembly – Rhodri was an active and committed humanist. This was the first ever state humanist funeral.

Humanists are also regularly asked to give times for reflection to the Scottish Parliament, with Humanist Society Scotland having delivered several of these.

In 2021, Humanists UK Chief Executive Andrew Copson led the national memorial ceremony organised by NHS England to remember NHS workers who had died during the pandemic. The memorial was also dedicated to the tireless work of NHS staff in caring for the 400,000 Covid patients who have been hospitalised.

We are also invited to send a representative to a number of other commemorative events, for instance, 2018’s National Memorial to British Victims of Overseas Terrorism, the national memorial ceremony for International Aid Workers, the Royal British Legion’s ‘Great Pilgrimage 90’ Ypres commemorations, the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, and the annual Holocaust Memorial Day.’

Celebrants to mayors: Further, Humanists UK celebrants have been involved in civic ceremonies and civic duties for decades. In 1998-9, a celebrant of ours was Humanist ‘Chaplain’ to the Mayor of Lewisham. Other examples include celebrants appointed by the Mayors of Neath, Carmarthen, Stafford, Basingstoke, Leicester, and the Vale of Glamorgan, Wokingham, and Bath, to officiate at mayoral inaugurations and to lead ‘time for reflection’ at formal occasions. Celebrants are frequently asked to lead memorial ceremonies in places such as schools and community centres and remembrance ceremonies, for instance for road traffic victims.

Appendix: Past work on this issue

Our earlier work leading the campaign towards inclusive civic ceremonies includes:

• In 2010 we welcomed the decision that humanist representatives could lay wreaths in Edinburgh and Belfast; but our request for participation in Whitehall was at that time rejected on the grounds of ‘limited space at the Cenotaph’ and a need to receive permission from the Royal Household.
• In 2012 we launched the For All Who Serve campaign with Defence Humanists, in order to amplify our call, and the family of Major Sidney Excell, the committed humanist who arrested Heinrich Himmler, spoke out in support.
• In 2013 we worked with Dan Snow to raise the issue and every year after that we spoke out and put pressure on the responsible bodies.
• In 2015, the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life – of which our Chief Executive was a Commissioner – recommended that ‘The pluralist character of modern society should be reflected in national and civic events so that they are more reflective of the UK’s increasing diversity’.
• In 2018 together with Defence Humanists, we succeeded in gaining humanist representation for the very first time at the annual Remembrance Ceremony at the Cenotaph in Westminster.