Kate Mukungu, Community Celebrant in North East England
Hello and welcome! I'm Kate Mukungu, a South Shields based celebrant for funerals, weddings, naming ceremonies and so much more. I’m here to create an inclusive, warm, ceremony with you, one that is and full of togetherness.
I am ceremonies celebrant across Tyne and Wear, which takes in South Tyneside, Gateshead, Sunderland, North Tyneside and Newcastle. I travel to the surrounding areas of Northumberland and Durham. I am happy to discuss travel throughout North East England and beyond.
Celebrant Services At a Glance
Funerals and Memorials
I facilitate compassionate, sensitive and often alternative ceremonies, reflecting the values of the person who has died. .
Weddings and Vow Renewals
I create warm ceremonies where couples can show up as their true selves. I help couples feel relaxed as they commit to each other in the presence of people they love.
Naming Ceremonies
By listening to understand your unique situation, I enable you to create a naming ceremony full of warmth and genuine joy.
Community Ceremonies
I support you to make your community event / ceremony special for everyone and less stressful for you.
What People Say about Kate
Feedback from couples and families who have booked me has been overwhelmingly positive. Their words and the words of ceremony guests are in my reviews page.
The most common word used in reviews to describe my celebrant style is warm. Having a feeling of warmth in ceremonies is an important part of bringing people together. Clients also highlight how supportive I am to them in the build up to the ceremony and on the day of the ceremony.
The three next most popular words from clients and guests alike are inclusive, calm and engaging. I am particularly happy that people use on the word inclusive as being inclusive is at the heart of my values as a celebrant. I am pleasantly surprised that people feel I am a calming presence, as I know how excited I feel at happy ceremonies.
The word amazing is most use to describe the wedding ceremonies I have celebrated. Another word used to describe what I put into my ceremonies is love - I can’t disagree!
Is a Community Celebrant the same as a Humanist Celebrant?
I am asked this question a lot. I qualified as a Civil Celebrant. People with this qualification often choose titles like Professional Celebrant or Independent Celebrant. I chose Community Celebrant because my strong background in community work shapes the way I do I my celebrant work. I bring community work values into the way I support people to make informed choices. For me, being a community celebrant means being somebody people can call on to honour birth, death, marriage and other key moments in between.
Sometimes people refer to me as a humanist celebrant. Perhaps they think I am a humanist because I am not affiliated to a religion. Although the ceremonies I facilitate are mostly non-religious, I am not a humanist celebrant. I am happy for religious or spiritual elements to be included, in ceremonies, if meaningful to the people being celebrated. This is the main difference between me and a humanist celebrant. Humanists UK describe a humanist as somebody who “rejects the idea of the supernatural, and is therefore an atheist or agnostic”. Therefore, humanist ceremonies are by definition completely and explicitly non-religious.
Five Reasons to Choose Kate Mukungu as Your Celebrant
You deserve a celebrant who will put you are those you love at the heart of your ceremony. Here is what you may want to know about me:
I am a well-trained and qualified celebrant
I did my celebrant training with the International College of Professional Celebrants. I have a nationally recognised celebrant qualification. Most training organisations do not offer this level of qualification as it is not legally required. I am doing advanced celebrant skills training in a programme called Celebrant Plus delivered by Match and Dispatch.
I am a celebrant for all ceremony types
I am happiest when I have a mix of funerals and end of life ceremonies, weddings and vow renewals, and naming / renaming ceremonies. It is important to me to be a celebrant that couples and families can call on throughout life’s milestones. To me, this is the essence of being a community celebrant.
I care about being a celebrant of the highest quality
My overall approach is to create warm ceremonies where people are valued and included. I believe a good ceremony holds space for people to express their love, gratitude and sometimes, loss. To do this, the celebrant must invest emotionally, which I do. I welcome laughter, tears, affection and whatever emotions feel appropriate in the moment.
I take my responsibilities seriously regarding health and safety, insurance, handling data safely etc. With a long track record of charity leadership my safe practice skills are sharp.
My values are core to my practice as a celebrant
I choose not to seek referrals from funeral directors and instead I promote myself to the public. This is a riskier approach, which can result in fewer clients. However, my values tell me that people should be encouraged to choose their own celebrant. I know some funeral directors don’t offer choice. By not letting myself become reliant on funeral directors, I make it clear that I work for families and with funeral directors, not the other way around.
I am happy to push for changes to make ceremonies better
I spent a considerable about of time promoting ceremony choice for people. I promote choice across the board - ensuring choice of words included in a ceremony, the place where the ceremony is held, and choices that include people from different backgrounds and identities. I don’t promote choice for people to choose me. I do it so that people get the ceremony that suits them. I am on a mission to push for change to tackle funeral poverty. I do so to ensure people in jobs and organisations that can make a difference pull together to help.
I believe the reason we hold ceremonies to bring meaning to important moments during life and at the point of death. The spiral image in my logo is inspired by the Neolithic rock art in Brú na Bóinne, Ireland. This site, which includes world famous Newgrange, reminds us that human beings have been conducting ceremonies for thousands of years. My tagline “Unity Through Ceremony” shows my commitment to connect people in ceremonies and leave nobody behind.
Affiliations and Memberships
I have been expertly trained by ICPC and achieved a National Open College Network (NOCN) Level 3 qualification. I am insured to practice as a celebrant through ICPC membership.
I am proud to adopt the Funeral Celebrant Accord, which defines the attributes and skills in an excellent funeral celebrant.
I am a proud signatory of Pledge South Tyneside, which promotes co-operation and good practice between people and businesses in South Tyneside.
Contact Kate
Please message me with details and I will be in touch as soon as possible. If you would like me to call you back, please remember to include your telephone number.