Our Founders
Celebrating Life Ministries did not begin as a plan to authorize clergy. It began in a street ministry in St. Thomas, Ontario, where the needs in front of us turned out to include the ones nobody was meeting.
We met, fell in love, and were married in 1995. We have a daughter, Michaela, and a dog named Benson who has appeared in more photographs than either of us would like to admit.
We are both ordained ministers, both registered with the Office of the Registrar General and authorized to solemnize marriages in Ontario, and we have been leading life celebrations for over thirty years. Wayne serves as the Governing Official of Celebrating Life Ministries.
We are still doing this work ourselves. Not as a memory, and not from behind a desk.
Soon after we married, we launched a missional community in St. Thomas called Kettle Creek Ministries. It became a practical street ministry: physical, emotional and spiritual support for hundreds of people who needed it.
We built Mercy Works, a cooperative food bank and clothing exchange. We served a community dinner every Tuesday night for 125 people living on the street. We ran a Tuesday lunch programme for 35 children through the EDGE Kids Club.
And among the obvious unmet needs were the rites of passage. Weddings. Funerals. The moments that matter most in a life, and no one available to stand there and hold them properly.
That is the whole origin of this work. We did not set out with a business plan or a theological position. We saw a gap from the floor of a church hall on a Tuesday night. The ministry of weddings and funerals grew until it was clear it deserved our whole attention.
In 2003 we committed to it full time, and officiated 187 weddings in that first year.
Why we do it this way
The ministry of Jesus was hands on and practical. He met needs.
We seek to emulate that example by meeting needs. It is also why Celebrating Life Ministries asks so little of its members beyond right standing. We have no interest in becoming another institution that takes more from people than it gives them.
Governing Official
Born and raised in London, Ontario. Ordained from a Fellowship Baptist background. Wayne has officiated over 3,000 wedding ceremonies and more than 4,000 life celebrations in total.
Co-Founder
Born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. Ordained from a Presbyterian background. Rosanne has officiated over 2,000 weddings and close to 3,000 life celebrations in total.
Between us we have officiated more than 7,000 life celebrations, and have trained and certified over 2,000 officiants and celebrants. We both came out of mainline traditions, which is a large part of why this one is built the way it is.
The foundation of everything here is a conviction that lives can be transformed, and that this happens through people showing up practically rather than through structures.
We are committed to personal and family success. And we want to provide a context of ministry for people who are building God’s kingdom in a non-traditional way — in missional communities, in small works, in places that do not look like a church and do not need to.
If that describes you, you are welcome here.
Some time ago we wrote something down for people whose ministry ended before they were ready, who lost a title and were left wondering whether they had lost the calling with it. What we wrote is a long letter rather than a page about us, and it will not be for everyone. But if that is where you are, you will find it here.