Skills Required to Become a Funeral Celebrant

Are you considering training to become a funeral celebrant? Funeral celebrants need to have many abilities including the obvious ones of listening, being able to record details and information and have the writing skills to create a ceremony. There are many skills required to become a funeral celebrant.

Become a Funeral Celebrant

Celebrancy is by no means an easy job, nor is it a job everyone can do. Like all jobs it requires many strengths and skills.  While celebrants do not have to hold a formal qualification If you want to become a professional, knowledgeable, successful, confident celebrant who can earn a living, you need to train in Funeral Celebrancy.

Being a funeral celebrant is an honour and a privilege, and training is essential to be able to fulfil all aspects of the job.

Below are some of the skills and qualities a funeral celebrant requires.

What are the Skills Required to Become a Funeral Celebrant

• Compassion and empathy
• Listening and hearing skills (two different skills)
• Good communication skills
• Good people skills to speak to people of all ages and with varied emotions
• Good research skills
• Strong creative writing skills
• The ability to confidently speak in public
• The ability to lead and control a situation
• The ability to use your initiative
• The ability to work well with others
• Business management skills
• Drive and determination
• Be computer savvy
• Be social media savvy
• Dedication, diplomacy, and discretion
• Drive and an ambition to learn and succeed as it can be a competitive market
• To always stay focused and professional in a highly emotional situation
• To put others first
• To understand about grief
• Mediation skills
• Confidence
• Organisation skills
• Punctuality

Funeral Celebrancy, More Than Speaking in Public

Many people believe the most important skill to being a celebrant is the ability to be able to speak in public, while this is an important aspect there are so many more skills needed than this. The speaking part is the end result, and only a small portion of what is involved.

What Hours Does a Funeral Celebrant Work?

Funeral celebrants do not work Mon-Fri, 9-5 jobs. We spend weekends and evenings writing ceremonies and may have to meet bereaved people of an evening.

Being a Funeral Celebrant can mean working long hours to gather and prepare information in a respectful and diplomatic way from people who are experiencing the saddest times of their lives. They may need to see you several times, they may need to call you at any moment when they have suddenly thought of something else that they didn’t think of when they first met you.  They are putting their trust in you and need assurance you can meet their needs.

Funeral Celebrants Need to Listen and Hear

Listening and hearing as previously stated are two very different things. We may hear that somebody has spoken, but did we listen to what they said or in fact listen to what they didn’t say? Is it possible to hear something that wasn’t said? Most definitely it is. And during our Funeral Celebrant Training Course, we teach trainee funeral celebrants who to do this and how to act on it.

Funeral celebrants hear so many things and sometimes we do not hear enough to gather information for the ceremony. We teach trainee funeral celebrants how to gather information from bereaved and grieving people. This enables a funeral celebrant how to pick out information that is necessary for the ceremony and learn that other information is not to be recorded. Sometimes they may just wish to vent or impart very personal information to you. 

Funeral Celebrants Need Excellent Writing Skills

All funeral celebrants must have excellent writing skills and know how to construct a ceremony correctly.  Possessing and exercising the ability to think on their feet and make suggestions is crucial. We must help grieving people who at that moment have memory loss caused by grief. This requires patience, compassion, empathy, and respect.

Funeral Celebrants Need Research Skills

You must be prepared to do plenty of research, a funeral ceremony is certainly not a ‘one size fits all’ and people live varied lifestyles and have different beliefs, you also need to build up a wealth of resources that can be used to make each ceremony unique and fitting to the person it is for.  A good Celebrant should never use a template for their ceremonies, although many do, these are not good Celebrants.

Funeral Celebrants Must be Organised People

You must be highly organised with the ability to work within tight deadlines. Celebrants will often arrange or order the music for the ceremony and help put together the order of service. They hold space, make sure everything runs smoothly, in order and within any allocated timeframe. Crematoriums all have strict time slots and it the responsibility of the funeral celebrant to make sure the ceremony fits within this.

Although you are working alone a good deal of the time, you must also be a team player and able to work alongside others who will play a part in the funeral.  The Funeral Director and their team, the staff at the venue where the funeral is taking place and any others who are involved in the ceremony itself.  A funeral celebrant deals with people from all walks of life, and they need to be able to form a connection with all those people.

Learning How to Lead a Funeral Ceremony

When we say ‘lead a funeral ceremony’ we mean perform not be responsible for the arrangements. A funeral celebrant is the voice of those each ceremony is for. We help people celebrate life and say goodbye.

Our Funeral Celebrant Training Course teaches trainee celebrants information required to become a funeral celebrant including what to do at a funeral. It isn’t simply a case of turning up and reading out the ceremony.  You need to be organised on the day and take the lead for all that is required before, during and after each ceremony. Following the ceremony people may wish to chat and may give you feedback either on you or the person the funeral was for. You may be met with some challenging situations and must handle them with professionalism.

Funeral Celebrancy is a Privilege

Being a funeral celebrant certainly isn’t an easy job, nor is it an easy money. There are so many more skills required to become a funeral celebrant from those listed at the beginning. Being a funeral celebrant is an honour and a privilege and this is hugely rewarding. We help make the most difficult of times special by informing and supporting those we write each ceremony to give their person a good funeral rather than a funeral that just serves a purpose.

If you are interested in training to become a funeral celebrant, have you got the skills required to become a funeral celebrant? If you have, we can help you become a successful funeral celebrant. Why not contact us for further information on how we can help you start your celebrant journey?