Marriage Authorization for Pastors and Chaplains in Ontario

What this actually is

Under the Marriage Act, every person who solemnizes a marriage in Ontario must be registered with the Office of the Registrar General as a Marriage Officiant. That registration is requested by a governing body on record with the Registrar General — Ontario does not authorize individuals directly.

Celebrating Life Ministries is one of those governing bodies. We are on the same footing as the Catholic, Anglican, United, Presbyterian and Baptist churches. The difference is not our status. The difference is what we ask of our members.

Of the 1,049 religious bodies on record with the Registrar General, we rank seventh by number of registered officiants and first by geographic reach. In 142 Ontario towns we are the only body with a registered officiant at all.

We have no prior education requirements for ordination; our own training is required of everyone. We do not ask you to be male or female. Standing with us rests on agreement with our beliefs and values, and on remaining a member in good standing. 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 current, and you may perform marriages anywhere in Ontario.

And then the part nobody else does

A priest is ordained, the forms go to the Province, a registration number comes back, and that is the end of it. No instruction on how to lead a wedding. No instruction on how to lead a funeral. It is entirely possible to complete years of theological education, as we did, and never sit in a single class on either.

So we teach it. Nobody taught you this, and nobody was ever going to. The legal requirements, the paperwork and the responsibilities you carry as a representative of the Province are built into the path to membership. We do not sell them to you separately and we do not leave you to work them out alone.

Wayne Prevett, Governing Official of Celebrating Life Ministries

I am the Governing Official of this denomination. When your paperwork goes to the Office of the Registrar General, it is my signature on it.

That signature is what allows the Province to register you to marry people in Ontario. It is not something I sign lightly, which is why we talk first — not to test you, but because attaching your ministerial standing to a body you have never spoken to is a strange way to begin.

I have met very few ministers who were ever taught how to lead a wedding or a funeral. That gap is why good people quietly walk away from this part of ministry, and closing it is the reason we are here.

If you are already serving, write to me and tell me about your ministry. I read them all.

Wayne Prevett

Governing Official · Celebrating Life Ministries

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.

Those are the Province’s words, not ours. It is what lets us put our clergy forward for registration as Marriage Officiants.

Who this is for

Around 18% of our members come to us already serving in ministry. Among them:

Pastors — full time, part time, youth, associate and executive
Chaplains
Missionaries
Christian camp directors and Youth for Christ directors
Hospice care providers
Christian educators
Retired clergy and missionaries
Church planters and those leading new or small works

This is a description, not a gate. If your primary vocation is serving God and others in ministry, you likely qualify whether or not your role appears above. Many of our members are new, working alone, or leading something they started themselves.

Not sure whether this applies to you?

Email Wayne Prevett at wayne@celebratinglifeministries.ca with some detail about your current ministry role, and we will arrange a call to talk it through.

You are already a keeper of the threshold. You have been standing at those moments for years, causing crossings that families will carry for the rest of their lives. What is missing is not the calling — it is a registration number.

This membership is available only to those who practise and embrace the Christian faith. We are a Christian organization that follows the teachings of the Bible and Jesus Christ, and we say so plainly so that nobody spends their time on a path that was never going to fit.

Before you start

Four quick questions. None of them are a test — they simply point you to the right place.

Do you live in Ontario? Our membership is built for people serving here. If you are elsewhere, write to us and we will tell you what is possible.
Do you already serve in ministry in some form? Pastor, chaplain, church planter, missionary, camp or youth worker, hospice care, Christian educator, retired clergy. If not yet, the path for you is here.
Is this an addition to what you already do, rather than a new career? If you are setting out to make this your full-time work, that is a different path and it lives at becomeanofficiant.ca.
Can you agree with our beliefs and values? Read them before you begin. They do not change, and agreement is required of every member.

One question settles most of it

Are you advertising for business?

If you are — a website, listings, marketing, taking bookings from people who found you rather than people who know you — then you are building something, and the path for that is becomeanofficiant.ca. It gives you the training, the templates, the scripts and the resources a practice requires.

If you are not — if the people asking you are your people, and you simply want to serve them properly — then you are adding to a ministry you already have, and this is the right page.

Somewhere between the two? Plenty of people are. Start here. This path asks the least of you, and if it grows into something larger you move across with a conversation rather than an application.

Not sure whether this is for you? You do not have to work it out alone. Book a short call before you start — Monday, Wednesday or Friday afternoon, by phone — or write to Wayne at wayne@celebratinglifeministries.ca and describe what you currently do. Either is a conversation, not an application.

What the whole path looks like

So that nothing comes as a surprise. Most people are through it in a few weeks.

The questionnaire. About ten minutes. It commits you to nothing.
A conversation with Wayne or Rosanne. By phone, about half an hour. We will have read your questionnaire beforehand. It is not an examination.
Reading and research. About an hour, in your own time, saved and returned to as often as you like. This is instruction rather than assessment — by this point the decision has been made. Everyone completes it, whatever their experience, because the legal requirements are not optional and a mistake on a marriage licence causes real harm to a couple.
The membership agreement and the annual fee, submitted together on the same form.
We file your registration with the Office of the Registrar General, once your police check and reference are in. Your registration number and marriage register follow.

These steps happen in this order, and none of them can be skipped. We cannot begin your application to the Office of the Registrar General until the conversation has taken place, the reading and research project is submitted, the agreement and fee are in, and we hold your police check and reference.

This is not us being difficult. We answer to the Province for every officiant we put forward, and we cannot vouch for someone we have never spoken to.

Ready?

Start with the questionnaire. When you submit it you will be taken to a page setting out step two.

Begin the questionnaire

Or keep reading — what is required, what it costs and how it works are all set out below.

What is required

Read and be in full agreement with our Christian beliefs.
Read and be in full agreement with our family and marriage statements, found within our beliefs.
Read and be in full agreement with our core values.
Complete and submit a police check. This is required before your paperwork is mailed to the Office of the Registrar General.
Submit a reference. An email goes directly to the person you name.
Complete the onboarding questionnaire below.
Have an interview call with Wayne or Rosanne Prevett. You will be able to book this once the questionnaire is submitted.
Complete the reading and research project.
Complete the agreement form and pay the annual membership and authorization fee.
Complete the registration application. We guide you through it and submit it to the Office of the Registrar General on your behalf.

How it works, and what it costs

$500.00 annually. That covers ordination, membership and authorization together. There are no further annual assessments.

If you have never performed a legal marriage, our Wedding Officiant training is required before we register you. The fee is $725.00, separate from the annual membership fee. We do not waive it. A marriage licence is a legal document and the ceremony has words in it that must be said. An error is not an embarrassment. It can leave a couple not married, and it cannot be put right afterwards. Years in ministry are not the same as having stood in front of a licence. About the training.

There is no minimum number of ceremonies and no attendance requirement. Once a year we ask you to confirm whether your ministry is active, tell us roughly how many ceremonies you led, and tell us about anything we should know. That is what keeps the register accurate, and it is all we ask. Many of our members lead two or three a year and that is entirely as it should be — this is an addition to a ministry you already have, not a practice you are being asked to build.

Ordination through us is required

Everyone authorized through Celebrating Life Ministries is ordained through Celebrating Life Ministries. That is not negotiable and it applies to every member without exception, whatever your background or existing credentials. It is what allows us to request your registration as a governing body on record.

The work is self-guided

The reading and research projects are done in your own time, at your own pace, and can be saved and returned to. Nothing here is scheduled against a weekend. We know that working clergy cannot give up a Saturday, and we know that has kept people out of this for years.

Then a conversation

Once the questionnaire is in, you speak with Wayne or Rosanne. Not an administrator. That call is where we hear about your ministry, where you ask us whatever you want to know before committing, and where we decide together whether this fits. The call is the door. What follows is preparation.

The paperwork is done on paper

Once your agreement is in, we complete the government-required application and email it to you for review. You print it, sign it, have it witnessed, and mail the original to our office. Our administrator handles the submission to the Office of the Registrar General from there. This part cannot be done online, by anyone, anywhere in Ontario.

What membership includes

Ordination through Celebrating Life Ministries
Registration as a Marriage Officiant authorized to perform marriages in Ontario
Your registration requested and your records kept current with the Registrar General on your behalf
The reading and research project, and the legal grounding that goes with it
Membership communications from the Governing Official
Us — reachable, for as long as you are a member

You will never be alone with a legal question

Wayne, Rosanne, Al and Lisa are reachable when something comes up. An unusual situation. A licence that does not look right. A question you have not met before, on a Saturday afternoon, with a family waiting.

You will not be left to work out the laws and your responsibilities on your own. For someone serving without a denomination behind them, that is not a small thing, and it is the part of membership our members mention most.

Start here

Ready when you are.

Begin the questionnaire

It takes about ten minutes. When you submit it you will be taken to a page setting out your next steps.

Questions before you begin? Email inquiries@celebratinglifeministries.ca, or contact Jason Olver, our Christian Ministries Executive Director, at jason@celebratinglifeministries.ca.

If this would be a new ministry rather than an addition to one

Everything above assumes you are already serving — that you have a ministry and want to add this to it. Some people come to us the other way round: this is the ministry they are setting out to build.

That path asks more of you and gives more back. Ordination and authorization the same as here, and then the training, the coursework, the templates and scripts, the coaching calls, and the resources you cannot do this work well without. It is not something to pick pieces from — you either need it or you do not.

If that is your story, start on our sister site.

Visit Become an Officiant

And if you join here and later find this work growing into something larger, tell us. Members move across when they want the training and the resources, and it is a simple conversation, not an application.

You have served these people for years. You still cannot marry them.