# Officiant

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{{Short description|Leader of a service or ceremony}}
{{more citations needed|date=October 2023}}
thumb|Justice of the Peace performing a hand-fasting ceremony during a wedding
An '''officiant''' or '''celebrant''' is someone who officiates (i.e. leads) at a religious or secular service or [ceremony](/source/ceremony), such as weddings ([marriage officiant](/source/marriage_officiant)), funerals ([burial](/source/burial), entombment or [cremation](/source/cremation)) or memorial services, [namegiving](/source/Naming_ceremony) or [baptism](/source/baptism).<ref>{{Cite web |date=Jul 20, 1998 |editor-link=Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia |title=marriage |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/marriage/Marriage-rituals |website=Britannica}}</ref>

Religious officiants, commonly referred to as '''celebrants''', are usually [ordained](/source/Ordination) by a [religious denomination](/source/religious_denomination) as members of the [clergy](/source/clergy), and charged with conducting [worship](/source/worship) services and other religious ceremonies. Some officiants work within [congregations](/source/Church_(congregation)) in some denominations and for specified ceremonies (e.g., funerals) as non-ordained members on the clergy team. Clergy or officiants differ from [chaplain](/source/chaplain)s in that the clergy serve the members of their congregation, while chaplains are usually employed by an institution such as the military, a hospital or other health care facility, etc.

Secular officiants include [civil celebrants](/source/Celebrant_(Australia)), [Humanist celebrant](/source/Humanist_celebrant)s, [justices of the peace](/source/Justice_of_the_peace), [marriage commissioners](/source/deputy_marriage_commissioner), [notaries](/source/Notary), and other persons empowered by law to perform ceremonies of legal import. Many secular celebrants conduct the whole range of ceremonies which mark the milestones of human life.

==See also==
*[Civil funeral celebrant](/source/Civil_funeral_celebrant)
*[Celebrant (Australia)](/source/Celebrant_(Australia))
*[Self-uniting marriage](/source/Self-uniting_marriage)

== References ==
<references/>

Category:Wedding ceremony participants
Category:Christian worship roles
Category:Religious occupations

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Officiant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officiant) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officiant?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.