Sidmennt
Encyclopedia
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
Human-Etisk Forbund
Human-Etisk Forbund
The Norwegian Humanist Association is currently one of the largest Humanist associations in the world, with 82,890 members. In relation to the size of the national population , it is by far the largest such association per capita.Founded in 1956, the HEF is a member of the International Humanist...
(HEF) and is a member of the International Humanist and Ethical Union
International Humanist and Ethical Union
The International Humanist and Ethical Union is an umbrella organisation embracing humanist, atheist, rationalist, secular, skeptic, freethought and Ethical Culture organisations worldwide. Founded in Amsterdam in 1952, the IHEU is a democratic union of more than 100 member organizations in 40...
(IHEU).
After the first civil confirmation in Iceland in 1989, the society was founded in 1990. Since then it directs civil confirmations every year. It also gives information about organizing secular funerals and name-giving ceremonies, and occasionally holds lectures and meetings about life stance
Life stance
A person's life stance, or lifestance, is their relation with what they accept as being of ultimate importance, the presuppositions and theory of this, and the commitments and practice of working it out in living....
issues.
From spring 2008 Siðmennt will offer the services of trained celebrants to conduct secular or humanistic ceremonies. Siðmennt is active in the movement for separation of church and state in Iceland.
Chairman and a founder of the society is Hope Knutsson.
Its name, Sidmennt is derived from the Icelandic words "sið" meaning "ethical" and "mennt" for "education". This is appropriate since as a life stance organization its primary subject is ethics and education on how to lead an ethical life or develop mature ethical practices and theory further.
Sidmennt has three main areas of concern
- Ethics - mostly practical ethics and human rights issues. Promotion of humanistic values.
- Epistemology - Its approach is naturalistic and rejects supernaturalism.
- Family ceremonies – Secular baby-naming, confirmation, weddings (and vows) and funeral ceremonies conducted by trained celebrants.
As with IHEU the association has the "happy human" as its logo but has adopted its own version of it that was designed in 2008 by one of its board member, Svanur Sigurbjörnsson.
From 2005 Sidmennt has awarded annually an individual or organization the "Sidmennt award of Humanism" for outstanding work on improving human rights in Iceland.
In Iceland life stance organizations that are not categorized as religious (like Sidmennt) are not entitled to receive "parish member fees" (sóknargjöld) through the state the way registered religious groups do. Instead, these church taxes are collected from people who are not members of any registered religious group and given to the University of Iceland. Sidmennt is fighting for a legal change that will give secular life stance organizations equal legal status and funding to the religious organizations.