Peter tells us: > > RE: LEGAL ORDINATION > Become a legally ordained minister within 48 hours > As a minister, you will be authorized to perform the rites and > ceremonies of > the church! > > Perform Weddings, Funerals, and Perform Baptisms Forgiveness of Sins and > Visit Correctional Facilities > > Want to open a church? > Check out Ministry in a Box > > > to find out how press <http://www.producedtolast.com/rev/> here
Cute, except for two small problems in Australia - being ordained does not automatically enable you to perform legal weddings. You must be ordained by a relgious organisation that is recognised by the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, and they must submit your name to the Registrar. Unless you have celebrant's number, any marriages you perform are not legal. And you can't visit correctional facilities unless you are sponsored, again by a religious organisation that is recognised by the Justice Dept in your state of residence, as a chaplain and have had appropriate criminal record checks, or you are on the visit list of individual prisoners, in which case you can only visit those particular prisoners, or the particular facility agrees that you can visit for a particular purpose. In addition, anyone can officiate at a funeral - you don't need to be ordained or trained. A friend of the family can do it if the person is willing and the family wants this. In some states (eg Victoria) you may require a second witness to sign the official papers if you are not ordained, but this is not exactly a huge problem. So I'm not sure that this wonderful new service will be worth a great deal for the average Aussie. Judy > -- "Politics is the work we do to keep the world safe for our spirituality" - Judith Plaskow Rev Judy Redman Uniting Church Chaplain University of New England Armidale 2351 ph: +61 2 6773 3739 fax: +61 2 6773 3749 web: http://www.une.edu.au/campus/chaplaincy/uniting/ action for peace: http://www.une.edu.au/campus/chaplaincy/uniting/links/peace.html email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------
