Neither did most of the ministers I know. We are asked to stand with families at the most significant moments of their lives, and nobody teaches us how. Celebrating Life Ministries exists to close that gap — and to bring you into a body that can register you to do this work in Ontario.
Why we exist
We exist to equip, empower and encourage passionate people to serve at the crossroads of life.
Weddings. Funerals. New life celebrations.
Our status
Celebrating Life Ministries is a religious body on record with Ontario’s Office of the Registrar General as a governing body for the purpose of performing marriage ceremonies in Ontario.
That is the Province’s own wording. It is what allows us to request the registration of our clergy as Marriage Officiants — and it is the same standing held by the Catholic, Anglican, United, Presbyterian and Baptist churches.
That is not a turn of phrase. It is what goes on the application to the Province, and it is what we believe — that serving people at the crossroads of life is a calling and a gift, not a credential. Everyone authorized through us is ordained through us and holds exactly the same standing. What differs is only how much you need from us in order to do it well.
One question usually settles it: are you advertising for business? If you are, you are building something and will need more than a registration number. If you are not — if the people asking you are already your people — you are adding to a ministry you already have.
You already have a ministry
For pastors, chaplains, missionaries, church planters, camp and youth directors, hospice care providers, Christian educators and retired clergy. You are already there when it matters most. This is what registers you to stand at the front of the room.
This would be your ministry
For people setting out to serve families at weddings, funerals and new life celebrations as their work. The same ordination and the same authorization — and then everything else, because starting from nothing takes more than a registration number.
What this work actually is
A wedding is not a description of a marriage. It is the moment the marriage begins. A funeral does not report a death; it is where a family crosses from one life into the next one. These are not ceremonies about a change. They are the change.
Which means the person at the front of the room is not a witness and not a master of ceremonies. They are the one who causes the crossing. Get it wrong and a family carries that for years. Get it right and they carry that instead.
We call the people who do this well keepers of the threshold. It is not a title we award and it is not on anyone’s certificate. Some of our members have been doing it for thirty years. Others have never stood at the front of a room and have simply always known this is what they were for.
Perhaps you have stopped expecting this. You watched a young person grow up inside your ministry, and then watched a stranger marry them. You sat with a family through the worst year of their lives, and then handed their funeral to someone who had to ask how to say the name. That is a particular kind of ache, and it is quiet, and most people who carry it stop mentioning it.
It does not have to stay that way. The people who already trust you are the people you should be standing in front of.
If that is how you understand this work — or how you have always suspected it should be understood — then you already belong here. Everything else is what we teach you and what we put in order.
Celebrating Life Ministries does not govern your church or your ministry. We do not direct your church government, your worship, or your ministry style. What you build is yours, and we take no share of it.
Our standing commitment to every member
We know many of our members came here from structures that asked a great deal of them and gave little back. We are not that.
What we do ask is what any denomination asks of its clergy. You hold to our beliefs and values. You review your ministry with us once a year. You remain accountable to the Governing Official — one person who knows your name, rather than a committee. Oversight without hierarchy. That is the difference.
And if you have no church or ministry yet, the same commitment reads differently but means the same thing: what you build will be yours. We ordain you, we present you to the Office of the Registrar General for registration, and we do not take a share of your work or tell you how to do it.
Ontario does not authorize individuals directly. It recognizes religious bodies, and those bodies register their clergy with the Office of the Registrar General.
That is the whole mechanism. Once you are ordained through us and in good standing, we request your registration with the Office of the Registrar General and keep our records of you current. You become a Registered Marriage Officiant, you obtain your marriage register, and you may perform marriages anywhere in Ontario.
We have no prior education requirements for ordination; our own training is required of everyone. Standing with us rests on agreement with our beliefs and values, and on remaining a member in good standing.
Of the 1,049 religious bodies on record with the Registrar General, we rank seventh by number of officiants and first by geographic reach. See what that means in practice →
Wayne and Rosanne Prevett
Wayne and Rosanne founded this ministry in 1995, incorporated it in 2000, and have led it since. Wayne serves as Governing Official. Between them they have officiated more than 7,000 life celebrations over 30 years, and have trained and certified over 2,000 officiants and celebrants.
They both left mainline denominations before forming this one — which is why the commitment above is written the way it is.
If your ministry ended before you were ready, we wrote a letter for you.