I have always felt called to work with others. I have worked in education, healthcare, in a congregational setting, as a counsellor, trainer and supervisor, and latterly in a retreat house.
The main focus of my ministry nowadays is as a minister and celebrant. My role is to plan, prepare and deliver special ceremonies for important times in life.
I conduct ceremonies including baby blessings, opposite-sex and same-sex legal weddings and civil partnerships, funerals and memorial services. I work mostly in central and southern Scotland but I’m happy to travel further afield if required.
My intention is to be alongside people to the best of my ability and to create and hold a memorable ceremony which truly reflects their beliefs, values and requirements.
The photo of a funeral was taken by Jenn Knox of PhotoJennK at a “Staged Funeral” event organised by SICA in May 2024 at Brewsterwells Crematorium in Fife. I was involved in a ceremony dedicated to “Alex Murray” an imagined person. The event was supported with a grant from Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief and Agnostic Scotland. Many thanks to all involved, including William Purves Funeral Directors, Oor Fleurs, and Sarah Lawson the BSL Interpreter. Thanks also to those SICA colleagues who organised the day.
You can learn more about me on my website here: https://www.spiritual-ceremonies.co.uk/
One of the best decisions we made for our Wedding Day was having Ian officiate and we simply cannot recommend him enough. From the outset of planning our wedding, Ian was there for us. The lead up to any wedding can be nerve-wracking but we always felt incredibly confident and in such safe hands with Ian. What made our journey so special was that he truly captured who we both were as individuals, our own personal stories and who we were as a couple. As a couple, Ian made our ceremony feel perfectly tailored to us. We come from different religious backgrounds and have families from all over the world who attended the wedding, and Ian was able to beautifully welcome everyone and ensure that we were all woven into the ceremony. For example, Ian even learned a few sentences in Serbian to welcome our international guests. We have had countless wedding guests compliment us on how perfect, beautiful and meaningful our ceremony was. Many guests told us ‘that was the best wedding ceremony we have ever sat through’. We decided to have both a photographer and a videographer on the day and thank goodness we did as having a video of our ceremony to look back on has been wonderful.
Ian’s love and support leading up to the funeral of my dad, and afterwards, gave enormous comfort to myself and my family. His care and compassion held us all at this sad and difficult time. Both the service at the private family cremation and the Service of Thanksgiving at the Church were full of warmth, deeply personal, and heartfelt. All family and friends who attended commented on how beautiful the services were and how they captured the essence of who my dad was, which is exactly what we had hoped for. We can’t thank him enough for all he has done for us to help make this unbearable time more bearable.
Thank you so much, Ian. So many people commented on what a wonderful service it was, including the funeral director! You provided a very personal service, just as our mother wanted, which helped make a sad situation very special. Our families are very grateful to you.
We wanted to thank you ever so much not only for being part of our wedding day and for such a wonderful service but also for everything that went into the planning and organising in the run up to the day. Your support, knowledge and wealth of experience helped us massively in deciding what kind of ceremony we wanted, and we could not have done this without your help and guidance (including a crash course on how to use a fountain pen!)
There were so many comments from our friends and family of how lovely the ceremony was and how much they enjoyed it so thanks again, it was just perfect.