Naming and funeral ceremonies for you

If you are looking for a non-religious naming, funeral or memorial ceremony crafted with care and attention, please email me or pick up the phone for a chat. Your wishes will always be at the centre of anything I do, and every single ceremony is tailored to you and the person you wish to celebrate.

Part of my role is to guide you towards a celebration based on humanist values of openness, kindness and hope. The ceremony I lead on the day will allow you to mark appropriately the start or the end of a life and to bear witness to your thoughts, your beliefs, and the emotions it kindles.

Ben Heasman Photography

I live in the Hornsey/Crouch End area of North London and am well placed to serve the whole capital. I can also offer naming ceremonies in Derbyshire – more details on my Naming ceremonies page.

I love every aspect of being a celebrant – talking to families, learning about the person at the centre of the ceremony, relishing their stories, laughing and crying with them, writing a bespoke ceremony to share with others on the day. I rarely come out of a meeting without learning something myself – whether an unfamiliar song or poem, a new insight, or just a weird fact.

My own pleasures include rewilding the garden (aka ‘benign neglect’), walking through woods and dales, singing badly, cycling slowly, and discovering new things around every corner. I’m a northerner by birth but London is my adopted city, so I feel lucky to have the best of both worlds.

I can also be found hacking at brambles in a small patch of yellow ant meadow nearby, or talking to prisoners in a local jail (in my role as a Humanist Chaplain). I learnt how to engage with people on an information helpline for a disability charity and realised that was something I really loved doing. Sometimes, having a stranger as a sounding board can be helpful in straightening thoughts and identifying what we really care about. For me, that is a vital part of the act of creating a unique ceremony for each of my clients.