Course · Certification
Two days, live over Zoom, to lead a professional and meaningful celebration of life. Taught alongside licensed funeral directors and end-of-life consultants — and certified by a body that has been doing this for twenty years.
Who certifies you
The Certified Celebrants Association has been certifying funeral celebrants for twenty years — hundreds of them, across Canada and now the United States. Every one of them trained by us.
It is the same people and the same passion. Wayne and Rosanne teach the training; the Association awards the credential and keeps the register. One body trains, one body certifies — the way a college teaches and a professional institute grants the designation.
That matters to you for a plain reason. A certificate is only worth what stands behind it, and behind this one is a body with two decades of graduates, a public register a family can search, and a standard it will not quietly lower.
Which is why you enrol on their site rather than this one. Same course, same instructors, same dates — you are simply booking with the body that certifies you.
No licence or legal authorization is required to lead a funeral anywhere in North America. If you can serve a family well, you can do this work — in any state or province. What you need is training, and that is exactly what this is.
We'll equip and empower you to lead and officiate a professional, meaningful funeral, memorial or graveside service — a celebration of life that families remember for the care it showed.
Our two-day intensive is live over Zoom, and gives you the instruction, resources and information to conduct a personal, effective and memorable service. One of the most valued parts of the training is the in-class presentation coaching and constructive critique, led by our world-class communicator, Wayne Prevett.
Training is delivered by qualified, experienced funeral-industry professionals — including licensed funeral directors and experienced cemetery and end-of-life consultants — and extensive templates and resources come with your certification.
The role
A trained professional who believes in the power of ceremony — and who is there for the family rather than for an institution.
Celebrants are qualified to lead the ceremonies that mark a life: funerals, memorials, gravesides. The word itself comes out of a faith tradition, where the role belonged to clergy. That is where it began. It is not where it has stayed.
Things have changed. The great majority of families now have no minister to call. They have not been part of a congregation for years, or ever — and when someone dies, they still need a ceremony, and they still need someone who knows how to lead it.
That is the gap a celebrant fills. A celebrant is neutral. They do not represent a religion. They are there to serve the family in front of them — whatever that family believes, and whatever they need the service to be.
What you'll learn
This is the curriculum we have taught for twenty years, refined every time we ran it. Not a lecture on grief — a working method you can use the week after.
“I had been twenty-five years in pastoral ministry and had conducted many funerals in that time, but the training took me to a whole new level of connecting with grieving families. Now I approach every funeral with confidence and a passion to serve people in their time of greatest need.”Garry
The part nobody forgets
Not an exercise. Not a worksheet. You craft it across the weekend and then you deliver it — camera on, to a room of people who go quiet and listen the way a family would.
It is the moment the whole training turns from information into something you can do. People arrive on Saturday wondering whether they could really hold a room. They leave on Sunday having held one.
There are usually tears. Not because anyone is trying for them — because good words about a life, said properly, do that. You will hear other people's and understand what you are being asked to become.
Then it is reviewed twice. First by the room — the people who just heard it, and who are about to do the same thing themselves. Peer feedback is honest in a way nothing else is, because everyone in that room knows exactly how hard it was.
Then by us. Between us we have led thousands of funerals, and we will tell you directly and kindly what worked, what did not, and what to do differently. Twenty years on, it is the thing people write to us about.
How this happened
Celebrants did not appear because someone invented a job. They appeared because three shifts happened at once, and families were left with nobody to call.
For a hundred years the church looked after rites of passage. Then congregations began closing by the dozen, and many of those still open started saying no to people who were not members. A great many families were connected to a church only for these moments — and that door closed.
What did not change was people. The need did not go away and neither did the rites of passage. Families are simply less connected to faith groups now, while being more socially wired for community than ever. They still want to gather. They still want it marked.
Most clergy are too busy to serve people outside their own congregation, and there are fewer qualified clergy every year. Some pushed back at the alternative that rose to fill the void. But the void was real, and something had to fill it.
That is the celebrant. Not a replacement minister and not a lesser one — a different role entirely. Clergy are religion-focused, seminary-trained, and there for the long haul with a congregation, making decisions by the rules of their tradition. A celebrant is there for this family, this week, with no strings attached and no doctrine to promote.
These forces are not unique to Canada. The same three shifts have happened right across North America, which is why the demand for trained celebrants keeps growing and the supply does not.
Who it's for
Nurses. Funeral directors who want to serve differently. Retiring professionals. People who sat through an impersonal service for someone they loved and thought: this was not who she was.
You do not need a background in ministry or public speaking. You do not need to belong to a faith, or to have left one. What you need is the willingness to sit with a family on the worst week of their lives and listen properly.
We have found that people who have faced loss themselves make the best celebrants. Not because grief is a qualification, but because they know what it is to need someone steady in the room.
Many arrive because of a service they sat through and could not forgive. That is a good reason to be here.
“After 20 years of nursing I decided to further my education in the funeral services profession… I knew I had to become a certified funeral celebrant in order to bridge my nursing profession with the funeral services profession.”Sherri Fitch
“My parents were Catholic and raised us in that faith. Their funerals were so impersonal. When my dad died, I wrote and delivered a tribute at the reception. It ended with the chicken dance, his favourite. I hope to be able to offer the same to families in my community.”Danielle
How we train
We have certified hundreds of celebrants across Canada — from Victoria, British Columbia to Newfoundland, in every province between — and now across the United States. We are active celebrants ourselves. It is our life and our passion, and we train from that perspective — stories, real situations, and what actually happens in the room.
The training has run continuously for twenty years, and every cohort has changed it a little. What you will sit through has been tested on hundreds of people who went home and did the work.
Licensed funeral directors, cemetery and end-of-life consultants, and celebrants leading services every week. Not academics.
You present. Your peers respond, then Wayne and Rosanne critique — directly and kindly. The most valued part of the training, and the part people remember years later.
Most services carry no religious content, yet a family's faith heritage still shapes what they want. You will learn to read that and serve it, whatever you believe yourself.
Certification comes with a code of conduct and an expectation that you stay active. This is a credential that means something because it asks something.
“There are no ‘do overs’. Ethics and professionalism are the key drivers… it is akin to being a pilot. It must be correct and spot-on the first time.”Eugene van den Berg
Your instructors
Where it leads
Funeral homes need celebrants and struggle to find good ones. Unlike weddings, the work is not seasonal and it is not booked eighteen months out — families need someone this week.
“Last week I facilitated funeral number 100 on my list. People are very happy with what I do, and some are calling me back a second time or more… I am in the career that makes me complete, thanks to your course.”Nola Wilson · trained 2016
“Since then I have been asked by several funeral homes to perform funeral ceremonies. As a licensed funeral director for many years it sure gives a different perspective on the whole funeral service.”A licensed funeral director
What we ask of you
Certification is not a certificate you buy. There are requirements, and they exist because a family only gets one chance at this.
That last one is the part people thank us for later. Reading about a graveside is not the same as standing at one.
Crossroads members save 15% on the course. Enrolment and payment are handled by the Association; your member code goes in at their checkout. And once you are certified, Crossroads membership is 25% less for as long as you hold your certification.
Certification opens the celebrant library — the scripts, the readings, the scripture, the songs and the glossary. Not a certificate and a handshake — the working material a celebrant actually needs, kept for the people who earned it.
What comes with it
Thirty years of building this work means we are not handing you theory. We are handing you the things we actually use — the scripts, the forms, the ceremony builder, and a website you can publish this week.
Complete celebrant websites, mobile-ready, with enquiry and booking forms already built in. Download, add your details, and you are live — no coding, no designer, no build. The single biggest barrier to starting, removed.
The tool we use for every service. Walk a family through their story and assemble a personal, polished ceremony in a fraction of the time. You never start from a blank page.
Full services for every situation — sudden death, a long illness, a child, someone with no faith background, someone with a great deal of it. Adapt rather than invent.
The questions that get a family talking, in the order that works. Refined over thousands of consultations, so you are never sitting there wondering what to ask next.
Pricing worksheets, booking contracts, policies and email templates. The paperwork of running a practice, already written.
Frameable, and naming you a Certified Funeral Celebrant. The thing a funeral director wants to see.
Our celebrants' group — where you can ask the question you would not ask in public, and get answered by people who have been there.
Direct support from us and our team of professionals. Not a ticketing system. Us.
What happens next
Certification hands you the craft. It does not hand you a website, or a way to build your first service, or someone to ask the night before you stand in front of a grieving family. That is what the Crossroads is for.
The tool we use to build every ceremony, now yours. Walk a family through their story and assemble a personal, polished service in a fraction of the time. No blank page.
Complete celebrant websites — mobile-ready, with enquiry and booking forms already built in. Download, add your details, and you are live.
Not a webinar. Wayne and Rosanne, live, twice a month. Bring the family you cannot read, the fee you are afraid to quote, the service you are stuck on. Thirty years of answers, to your actual question, by name.
And the rest of it
When it runs
Live over Zoom, from wherever you are. Two full days — not an evening, and not a recording you watch alone.
Next session
12 & 13 September 2026
Saturday and Sunday
Then
7 & 8 November 2026
Saturday and Sunday
Looking ahead
January 2027
Dates announced in the autumn
We have run this training on this rhythm since 2021 — winter, spring, early autumn and late autumn. If a date does not suit, the next one is never more than a few months away, and your place carries forward if something changes.
What it costs, and where to enrol
Two full days live, presentation coaching, the templates and scripts, and your certificate. There is no upsell and no tiered version — everybody gets the same training.
Next session: 12 & 13 September 2026.
Prices are in Canadian dollars. From the United States that is roughly 30% less than the figure here — around US$590. The training is live online, so where you are makes no difference to what you get.
Enrolment is with the Certified Celebrants Association, the body that certifies you. Same course, same instructors, same dates.
What happens after you enrol. Your place is confirmed and the joining details follow, along with the Reflection Project to complete beforehand. You arrive on the Saturday morning and leave on the Sunday with a working method, your scripts, and your certificate on completion. Most people lead their first service within weeks — several have told us it was a fortnight.
Cancellation. Two weeks or more before the training, a full refund less a $50 administration fee. One week before, 50%. Less than a week, no refund — but your fee carries to a future course.
Going further
Funeral Celebrant is one of three certifications. Earn all three — Wedding Officiant, Funeral Celebrant and New Life Celebrant — and you qualify for our highest designation, the Life Celebration Specialist®.
The Specialist Path is all three certifications plus twelve months in the Crossroads, for $2,497 CAD. Bought separately that comes to $2,912, so the path saves you $415 — and it makes you one of very few people qualified to serve a family at every threshold of life.
Not ready yet?
You do not have to enrol to talk to us. Voice Message Coaching is open to anyone — send Wayne a voice message with whatever you are weighing up, and he replies. A day is $27 CAD, a week $87 CAD, a month $297 CAD. Members save 15%.
Ready when you are
Two-day cohorts, ten seats each. Dates and registration are handled through the Certified Celebrants Association — certification does not require Academy membership, and you keep your credential by holding to our values and staying in good standing.
Live over Zoom, with licensed funeral directors and end-of-life consultants.
Small enough that you speak, ask, and get answered by name.
Cohorts run through the year. Current dates are listed on the registration page.
Before you enrol
No. There is no licensing requirement for funeral celebrants anywhere in North America. What families and funeral homes look for is training, judgement and reliability — which is exactly what certification demonstrates.
No. The training is non-denominational. Most life celebrations carry little or no religious content, though a family's faith heritage often shapes what they want. You will learn to serve that well whatever you believe yourself.
None at all. Our celebrants come from nursing, teaching, ministry, corporate careers and retirement. Several were funeral directors who wanted to serve families differently.
More reliable than weddings, in truth. Funerals are not seasonal, they are not booked far ahead, and funeral homes need celebrants they can call. Many of our celebrants build relationships with two or three homes and work from those.
It is serious work, and it asks something of you. Most celebrants find it the most meaningful thing they have done — you are giving a family something they will hold onto for years. We talk honestly about how to carry it.
No. The templates come with Crossroads membership and with the Launch and Full Path options — but any certified celebrant can buy one on its own. It is a one-time purchase and the files are yours to keep, including if you later leave the membership. We are not in the business of taking back something you have already built on.
Yes. It is one of three certifications — Wedding Officiant, Funeral Celebrant and New Life Celebrant. Earn all three and you qualify for our highest designation.
From some of the 2,000+ officiants and celebrants Wayne and Rosanne have trained and coached.