I create personal and meaningful ceremonies to mark the special events in your life. I first learned ritual making with Juliet Batten in Auckland in 1985 and since then I have created many ceremonies to mark transitions in people’s lives and in the world around us. I’m married with two adult daughters and live in a small old cottage in the Avon Loop in inner city Christchurch. I have a Certificate in Celebrant Studies and a Community Skills Certificate, and am registered by the Department of Internal Affairs to perform Marriages and Civil Unions. Personal abilities which enhance my work as a celebrant are:
- Put people at their ease
- Treat all with respect, consideration and humanity
- Experienced public speaker
- Relate well to people of different spiritual beliefs and ethnic origins
- Reliable, conscientious, and professional
- Keen sense of humour
- Excellent organizational skills and attentive to detail
For the past fifteen years I have been Manager of Volunteering Canterbury where my role includes
• Group facilitation
• Workshop tutoring
• Support for individuals and organisations
• Event management
My personal goal is to help people to have more choices in their lives. My work as a celebrant, creating individual ceremonies which reflect your life and values, helps me to achieve that goal. In my celebrant work I help people to have choices in areas where they may not have realized they could have a choice. I book only one ceremony on each date, so you are assured of my full attention to your ceremony.
Beliefs and Values
I am a member of the Spiritual Spiral, an informal organization that uses ritual, study, reflection and spiritual practice to foster a greater understanding of ourselves and the universe. We study past and current traditions and incorporate myth, ritual, poetry and music. We seek to work in a loving way for the highest common good, and to live in harmony with the earth.
Spiritual Spiral’s guiding principles:
• Our relationship with the earth is one of reverence and stewardship.
• We honour the life force and its ever-renewing cycles of life, growth, death, decay, and regeneration.
• We acknowledge the interdependence of all life.
• Each individual accepts full responsibility for their own actions and makes up their own mind on moral issues.
• We strive for balance within ourselves and acknowledge the power of working together for the common good.
• We believe that divinity exists in many forms and all sincere religions are different paths to a universal truth.
• We encourage questioning and exploration so that each may discover and develop their own true nature and find their own spiritual path.
• We respect the beliefs of others, even when their beliefs are radically different to our own.
• We respect those whose age and experience leads them to an understanding of social, moral and practical matters.
• We welcome all races, ages, genders, and sexual orientations, as well as differences of life situation, background, and ability.
• We honour the sacred elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water and include in our spiritual practice relationships with gods and goddesses from varied traditions.
• We celebrate the eight seasonal festivals of the Southern Hemisphere and observe other personal and social transitions as agreed.
You are welcome to contact me at ruthg@clear.net.nz
