Secular Wedding Officiant or Secular Wedding Officiant?

Someone recently asked me the following question: Do we say secular wedding officiant or secular wedding officiant? So, I asked myself questions because, despite my 8 years of activity as a secular ceremony officiant, I admit that I was not completely sure of having the answer.

The word “secular” is a noun that designates a person who is not religious and it can also be an adjective and this is precisely the one I was wondering about. So I continued my research and found the following elements: According to grammarian and lexicographer Bénédicte Gaillard, the adjective is written “secular” in both masculine and feminine forms. name only that I spoke to you about above. We will therefore speak of “secular education” and a “secular school”. Le Trésor de la langue Française and Le Robert also use “secular” and “secular” indifferently as an adjective and as a noun like a “secular habit”, “the secular spirit” while Le Larousse, which defines “secular” as which concerns civil life as opposed to religious life, considers in the same way as Ms. Gaillard that the adjective is written “secular” in the masculine and feminine forms and cites the examples “secular State” and “secular law”.

When the secular ceremony appeared in France in the early 2000s, it was mainly chosen by couples who could not marry religiously, for example because they were divorced or of the same sex. For them, the secular ceremony was a way of completely freeing themselves from any rules imposed by any religion whatsoever and the content of the ceremony often did not include any religious reference.

Today, the secular ceremony appeals to a wide range of lovers who opt for this type of celebration, by choice and not by constraint and a certain number of them choose not to deviate that much from traditional religion. and sometimes even wish to include a ritual or a religious text. What especially appeals to couples today is not necessarily the fact that the ceremony is secular. What matters to them is that it is personalized and specially written for them.

So, even if, following my research, I deduced that the expressions “ secular marriage ” and “ secular ceremony ” were correct, what matters to me is to practice this beautiful profession as best as possible in order to make happy are those who trust me.