Wayne
and Rosanne Prevett, the founders of
Life Celebration Ministries, are the proud
parents of an amazing daughter, Michaela. When Michaela was born they
began to investigate possibilities for a dedication/christening
ceremony. Both Wayne and Rosanne were ordained as ministers in
different traditional Christian backgrounds so the only ceremony style they knew was
more focused around liturgy, ritual, and religion.
Although they didn't know exactly what they wanted, they knew it would not be based on promoting ritual and religion. The ceremony needed to be about celebrating the birth of a child and the commitment of the parents and their village to invest in that child.
Their journey led them to go back and ask, "what is great parenting all about"? They concluded parenting was all about teaching and modeling life values. They reached this conclusion as a result of officiating hundreds of funerals. The common theme of every funeral they ever officiated was to 'remember' and 'celebrate' the qualities of a person's life. At the end of the journey of life everyone is remembered by how they related to others.
Words such as kind, generous, respectful, simple, and loyal are often heard in eulogies. Wayne & Rosanne determined that our lives are remembered by how we interact with and relate to others. Even Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, reminded his own children at the end of their journey to "never forget the things I taught you, never let loyalty and kindness get away from you" Proverbs 3.
Their next step was to compile a list of the values and virtues they wanted to instill in their daughter's life.
And the 'village manifesto' was birthed.
