BY NERIA SOLIMAN
Marriage celebrants including yours truly participated in the Ongoing Professional Development (OPD) seminar which is required by the government via the Attorney General’s Office.
OPD is a yearly full day session requirement for all professional celebrants for accreditation in the practise of Civil Marriage Celebrancy.
It was held at York Conference and Function Centre Bowler’s Club last 10th November at 99 York Street Sydney.
The topics covered were: Interviewing the Marrying couple, From Page to Stage Preparation, and Setting Professional Fees
Ms Lillian Medina Lyons through the Australian Celebrations Training (ACT) conducted the seminar “Training for Professional Celebrants.”
ACT is a registered training provider national organization. The participants enjoyed Ms Lyon informative and well presented topics .
She plans to conduct another OPD in 2021. Many Filipinos may remember Ms Lillian’s father, the former Philippines Consul General of Sydney Tony Medina who passed away in 2017.
Yours truly had been a Civil Marriage Celebrant since 2008.
It’s been a privilege for me at the same time to be a community leader, journalist, community paper columnist and food writer.
I served once as president of the peak umbrella organization Philippine Community Council of NSW (PCC-NSW), not to mention representing the community organisation St. Scholastica’s College Alumni .
On a separate note. I will be publishing my forthcoming book, tentatively titled “The Scent of Dankalan Leaves”, wherein I would be talking about my happy and fulfilling experiences as Marriage Celebrant. It will be the fifth of the books I have published . the previous ones mostly about by cooking recipes.
“The Scent of Dankalan” is a memoir including my selected cooking recipes and will be launched on 11 December 2020.