Kirstie Celebrant

15/11/2024

Hands in the bucket if you're waking up to foggy mornings and choosing to start your day with the hope of sun.

Yesterday's funeral 'Pat Fest' was a thing so full of love that it'll be tucked in my back pocket for ever more.

Feel a bit like I'm starting the day with a love hangover. So choosing to share the below wisdom in the hopes it'll see us all through to the sun melting the mist n murk.

Now get your hat on and get to it xx

13/11/2024

It's gonna be quite a day tomorrow. A very special ceremony that we've been working on for many many weeks now.

Start of prep today with dedicated nails from my love Hannah Ettrick

Excellent before and after pics. It was cold.

Zoom in on the after for a pair of peas in a pod.
My heart ❤️

11/11/2024

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/issue-we-shining-light-kirstie-atherton-susie-sprigg-zzfqe/?trackingId=lh0kN1xUTEiNkD55yyvU7g%3D%3D

Who is Kirstie? Kirstie is a celebrant increasing awareness in her sector, which is still a predominantly patriarchal one. She creates ceremonies to mark all and any of the various milestones in people's lives.

10/11/2024

Good morning you lovelies.

A soothing weekend serenade after a tumultuous week.

Far worse ways to start a day.
Sending love from me and my best lad xx

07/11/2024

Morning all you lovely creatures.

If yesterday was shock and the adrenaline of determination, which from so many messages I received seemed to be the abiding feeling.

Then today is bone tiredness, bruising, the quiet huddle of retreat and regroup.

All is still well but today, for me at least, it's soft comfy clothes, lots of tea, gentle slow steps and space to allow the complex tangle of the world and the actions of some of our people to lose some of its crackle.

Today is quiet.
It's the provision of space.
It's for (as my very wise supervisor has just reminded me) closing our eyes and asking ourselves "what would love do?"

What would love do?

Probably the only question ever really worth asking. Ever.

Sending my heart to yours. We've got this. If you need me, you know I'm only ever as far away as your phone x

06/11/2024

The wisdom I referred you all to this morning.

This is the kind of man the world needs x

Things have just got a lot more difficult. Here’s what I think. I had no control over what just happened. None. But I do have control over how I will react to it. And I am not going to give up on the beautiful and the good, the grip on my dreams just got tighter.

06/11/2024

Sending hope and comfort to all today.

What a confusing, disappointing, fearful day.

All we can do is love more freely, speak more kindly, understand more willingly and know, truly know, that our world is beautiful and so is our potential xx

28/10/2024

Today I had some time to loiter round the crem whilst waiting for a lift. Something I've not had the opportunity to do before. So I spent the time getting to know some of the trees.

The trees at Walton Lea are storytellers' trees. There are fables and spells baked into their trunks. They have limbs and features and quirks that suggest personality, pain and mischief.

It's also that time of year when the squirrels leg it around like mad lads. Drunk on autumn. High as Christmas and absolutely ready.

It was raining and was absolute bliss. Here's why .......

23/10/2024

22/10/2024

Well now... there's a thing.

So, so grateful for this work and for Anne and all at Civil Ceremonies Ltd Just the best trainers, supporters and champions x

Kirstie Atherton is the very first Funeral Celebrant to achieve the
NOCN Level 4 Advanced Practice Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy.

We are delighted to announce that Kirstie Atherton, based in Widnes, is the first ever funeral celebrant to successfully complete the new Level 4 national qualification, completing it in just 9 months, from January to September 2024.

Kirstie has been a practicing funeral celebrant in the northwest since she achieved the Level 3 Diploma with Civil Ceremonies in 2021.

Anne Barber, Managing Director of Civil Ceremonies Ltd who developed the Level 4 Diploma in partnership with awarding body NOCN says ‘We are thrilled that Kirstie has achieved this advanced level qualification, it is a huge achievement. Kirstie completed the course assignments at a very high standard and used the course materials to great effect. The Level 4 Diploma is all about progression for practicing funeral celebrants and taking existing skills to a new level. The feedback we have received from the celebrants currently studying for the diploma supports that it really does provide excellent progression.’ Kirstie is pictured here receiving her certificate from Anne.

Anne talked with Kirstie about why she decided to take the Level 4 Diploma and how she feels she has benefitted from it. See the conversation here: www.civilceremonies.co.uk/first-level-4

For further information about the Level 4 Diploma, see www.civilceremonies.co.uk/level-4-diploma-funeral-celebrancy , email [email protected] or call 01480 276080.

20/10/2024

Hello to you, autumn pixies. It's been an age since we had a Sunday morning muse, hasn't it? I'm hoping you're in the mood to ponder this with me...

Death has been everywhere this week, hasn't it? I've been feeling for all those (probably) younger people who have this week been made starkly aware that we all die, even young people, even ones with international fame and adoring fans. Even ones who've tried all they can to get themselves to a place which is safer than the one they left.

As humans we've taken the single thing that defines us all and wedged it into the tightest space we can. We've banished it as far from our vision as we might so that we can live fooling and soothing ourselves that it's nothing to concern ourselves with. When it's everything.

Shoving it against the wall of our brain allows spores to form. A moldy hue to creep from behind it. Whilst we're so determinedly not looking at it, it grows.

If there's someone in your life, perhaps one of those (probably) younger people who might be experiencing the death of their first idol (we've all been there... we've all grieved someone we never met but took up space in our heart ... I cried putting the washing out when Victoria Wood died and I'm still not ready to talk about Bowie) encourage them to pull it out into the light.

Death shouldn't be the festering thing in the corner, brooding and threatening and biding its time. It should be the bright and vibrant rug in the centre of all our rooms. The thing beneath our feet which bouys us up just as it grounds us. The thing that we all should own and appreciate and actively acknowledge.

Because we do own it. It isn't a choice. Running from it is fruitless. It's a race without a finish line. What if we all stopped running. What if, without warning, we all just didn't take another step? What if, instead, we all turned around to look it in the eye? Stretched out our hand and acknowledged that in running we are only ever running from ourselves.

What's stopping us from stopping?

Thoughts as welcome as always.
Dog pic used to catfish (dogfish) you in. Standard.

Sending love to you x

16/10/2024

Eeekk!!
There are 10 things I love about Winterval.
8 of them are this*

Have a lovely day all xx

*the other 2 are twinkly lights and guilt-free (ish) lying on the sofa

No cheeses for us meeces 🐭

15/10/2024

Today's funeral was all of the beautiful things.

P was the 150th soul whose family have trusted me with this final act.

I could not be more grateful.

It could not mean more.

HELEN HORNE Funeral Directors Ltd

05/10/2024

Front row.
Royal Opera House.
Royal Ballet.
With this Royal Pain.

She's my goddess really xx Tracey James

03/10/2024

This woman speaks the truth.

I always tell people Helen looks after your person as though they were her own.

I too am a woman who speaks the truth.

Sending love xx

Why choose our funeral home, we are a small independent family funeral home, with a highly dedicated and qualified professional team.
We are not sales people, but we strive to understand your needs.
We take pride in our service, to you as a family.
As a rule, we only carry out one funeral a day, (unless a family suggest otherwise) our cars are beautiful and clean, for every service, we take care of.
We take pride, in our funeral attire.
We have a beautiful, cosy chapel of rest.
For all enquiries please contact Helen Horne Funeral Directors 01925 636460 www.helenhornefuneraldirectors.co.uk

30/09/2024

Hey there you.

Like many celebrants I am often contacted by people who are thinking of taking up this work themselves.
Soooo many people.
We must make it look very easy.

Too often these people will ask whether I think they "need" to train, whether I think training is "worth it". Oftentimes Funeral Directors have told them there's no need.

They're wrong.

I am consistently floored by the idea that someone would feel confident in officiating a funeral without previously having been trained to within an inch of their life.

A funeral.
A total one-time only shot at either making the worst day of someone's life something from which they can take comfort or not. Or worse.

The lack of regulation in the funeral industry is staggering. People deserve more.

Always feel free to ask about the credentials of any celebrant offered to you by a Funeral Director.

Are they trained?
To what level?
With which trainer?
Insured?
DBS checked?
A member of a professional body?

We may make it look easy but beneath the surface there is so much more going on.

These are my trainers. I'm proud of that and it deserves to be recognised and celebrated.

Well done CCL - trailblazers xx

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/uDaRY89uwgJeVZjA/

Still Outstanding!

Civil Ceremonies Ltd is delighted to announce that following an Ofsted inspection in August 2024, we have retained our ‘Outstanding’ grading as an Independent Training Provider.

Managing Director Anne Barber said ‘An incredible amount of hard work has gone into the celebrancy courses we offer, over the last 22 years since the company was founded. We were so excited when our first inspection result in 2018 was ‘Outstanding’ and to have retained it on our second inspection is just brilliant. A massive thank you to all our fantastic staff, tutors and assessors who make our training courses so incredibly thorough. Thanks also to all our wonderful learners who work so hard to achieve their qualifications and become amazing celebrants’.

The full report can be seen on this link: https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50258237

For more information about our courses see www.civilceremonies.co.uk, call on 01480 276080 or email [email protected]