Each course is organised into six lessons, which can be accessed online, and which include text, audio and video material, together with access to your course tutor, opportunities for discussion and the submission of homework to qualify for a certificate. Full sets of resources, including examples of real life rituals addressing many different circumstances, are provided. The courses give the opportunity for an in-depth training that is both informative and participatory. By working online you don’t have to leave home to attend, you can work at your own pace and at times of your choosing.
Serving the Living and the Dead: an OBOD course on Funeral Celebrancy
This online course leads you through a process of reflecting on all the skills and qualities needed to work with families at times of loss and trauma; to serve them in creating and conducting unique funerals to celebrate the lives of their loved ones; and to help lay the foundations for a healthy grieving and healing process.
Beginning with an exploration of your motivation, and what you bring to this important and privileged task and role, the course goes on to explore celebrancy from the perspective of each direction. Participants are offered a grounding in the practical considerations of organising and conducting funerals, and liaising between bereaved families and the funeral professions. The group will consider listening, writing and speaking skills, and be guided through a process which can be followed in working with bereaved families. We will look at how to create fitting celebrations of life, whatever the age or circumstances of death; and reflect on the deep emotional and spiritual processes which a good funeral can support. Underpinning the whole course will be an approach to celebrancy as service, and the recognition of the healing journey we must ourselves undertake if we are to facilitate healing for those we serve.
Celebrating Life: an OBOD course on Family Celebrancy
This course equips you to work closely with couples and families at some of the most important moments in their lives, and to create and conduct rich, vibrant and unique ceremonies for Weddings, Handfastings, Renewals of Vows, Namings and Welcomings. We will explore ways of drawing upon our experience and practice of Druidry to create meaningful rituals for people in our wider communities, whatever their own beliefs and outlooks may be. We’ll look at the structure, forms and dynamics of ceremonies, and how these can be adapted to suit different occasions. As well as offering you opportunities to develop your own listening, writing, and speaking skills, the course will equip you to work with families collaboratively, facilitating their input and engagement in a variety of ways. You’ll be supported to draw on family history and personal stories, and find ways to enable everyone present to feel welcome, included, and actively involved – creating ceremonies that feel, natural, powerful and just right for each family that you will serve in this uniquely privileged role.
DISCOVER MORE
Learn more about Druidry and how to join the order
The practice of Druidry used to be confined to those who could learn from a Druid in person. But now you can take an experience-based course wherever you live, and when you enrol on this course, you join the Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids, and begin an adventure that thousands of people all over the world have taken. It works with the ideas and practices of Druidry in a thoroughly practical, yet also deeply spiritual way.