Registration and Authorization
There is a great deal of confusion about this, and very little plain explanation available. Here is the mechanism, stated simply.
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.
Under the Marriage Act, every person who solemnizes a marriage in Ontario must be registered with the Office of the Registrar General. The Province records the governing body. The governing body requests the registration of its clergy.
That is why an individual cannot apply on their own behalf, and why the question is never how do I get authorized but rather which recognized body will register me.
Our standing
We are a governing body on record with the Office of the Registrar General, on the same footing as the Catholic, Anglican, United, Presbyterian and Baptist churches.
There is no lesser tier. A Marriage Officiant registered through us holds exactly the same authorization as one registered through any other governing body in the province. The difference between denominations is not what the Province grants — it is what each body asks of its own members. Ours is set out plainly in our beliefs and values, it does not change, and there is nothing behind it.
These figures come from the Province of Ontario’s own registry of religious bodies recorded with the Office of the Registrar General.
And in 142 Ontario towns, we are the only religious body with a registered officiant at all. If someone in those communities is married by a member of the clergy, it is one of ours.
We say this not as a boast but because it answers a fair question. When you attach your ministerial standing to a governing body, you are entitled to know whether that body is substantial or a name on a form. This is a denomination of some size, spread further across Ontario than any other, and it has been doing this since 2000.
Once you are ordained through Celebrating Life Ministries and in good standing, we complete the required application and request your registration with the Office of the Registrar General.
As your governing body we are also required to keep our records of you current, and to notify the Registrar General promptly of any change to your status, address or contact information. We do that for as long as you remain a member.
You become a Registered Marriage Officiant, you obtain your marriage register, and you may perform marriages anywhere in the province of Ontario — according to the rites and ceremonies of this governing body.
Registration authorizes you to perform marriages. It is not a civil appointment. Only judges, associate judges, justices of the peace and municipal clerks or their delegates are civil Marriage Officiants, and a registered officiant must never advertise that they perform civil marriages.
If you leave this governing body, or are no longer supported by it, your registration is cancelled and you are no longer authorized — whether or not anyone has told you so.
We complete the application and email it to you. You review it, print the required pages, sign, have it witnessed, and mail the original document to our office. Our administrator submits it from there.
This step cannot be completed online — not through us and not through anyone. Original signatures are required.
We request registration for members who live in the province of Ontario. Ontario does allow a religious representative living elsewhere to apply for temporary registration for a specific marriage, sponsored by a governing body on record — but that is a separate and limited process, and our membership is built for people serving here.
If you already serve in ministry — as a pastor, chaplain, missionary, camp or youth director, hospice care provider, Christian educator, or in a work you have started yourself — the path here is written for you.
If you already have a ministry
If you are looking to make weddings, funerals and other rites of passage your full-time work rather than an extension of ministry you already do, that is a different path and it lives on our sister site.