Approval of marriage celebrant for Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
26 February 2016
The Registrar-General of Births, Marriages and Deaths, acting under Section 10 of the Marriage Act 1955, has approved a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (CFSM) to solemnise marriages.
The Registrar-General was satisfied that the appointee, Dr Karen Martyn was of good character and otherwise qualified to act as a marriage celebrant, and that the provisions of this Act had been complied with.
Recent changes to the celebrant appointment process have strengthened testing of good character and ability to meet the requirements of the role.
The CFSM nomination included all required documents, completed correctly.
The appointment follows the Registrar-General's 30 November 2015 approval by the of the CFSM as an organisation for the purpose of later nominating persons to solemnise marriages.
More information:
- There are 9,665 registered marriage and/or civil union celebrants in New Zealand. 41% are attached to Specified Religious Organisations under the Marriage Act 1955; 35% belong to Approved Organisations under the Act (the case with CFSM); 24% are independent
- Details of the decision published in the New Zealand Gazette of 25 February 2016. https://gazette.govt.nz/ - specifically: https://gazette.govt.nz/assets/pdf-cache/2016/final/2016-02-25_Gazette_16.pdf (735KB)
- Celebrants Online website https://celebrants.dia.govt.nz.
- Fact sheet: Approval of Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster marriage celebrant (.docx, 103KB)
