Registered
Life-stance Organization

Flourishing applied for official registration with the state as a humanist life-stance organisation in October 2025. The committee of the District Commissioner of West Iceland responsible for matters concerning religious and life-stance organisations considered that the organisation fulfilled all the conditions for registration, except that it was too young to have demonstrated stability in its activities. The application was therefore rejected. In the spring, however, Flourishing applied again, having by then fulfilled additional criteria that strengthened the case for organisational stability. Among these was the fact that, in early May 2026, the organisation was admitted to the international humanist organisation, Humanists International. That admission process took two months, and the organisation would not have been accepted unless it had been considered credible and active in accordance with the life stance of humanism.

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The District Commissioner’s committee considered the application again on 15 May, at which point it was approved. The decision will then take legal effect through publication in the Legal Gazette on 20 May, after which it will be possible for people to register as members of the organisation through Registers Iceland. It will also be possible to register as a member through the organisation’s website.

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What is the significance of the organisation’s formal legal registration? Its main advantages are as follows:

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• The organisation receives legal recognition and status on the basis that it fulfils the legal requirements for the operation of a life-stance organisation. This gives the organisation a certain standard of quality and credibility. The District Commissioner’s Office monitors annually whether the organisation continues to meet its obligations to operate within the framework of the law, and the organisation must submit annual accounts and an annual report on its activities. The organisation must offer ceremonies and engage with ethical issues. It may not operate for profit and may not undertake anything contrary to public order. Flourishing’s statutes include provisions that reflect the conditions set out in the legislation on religious and life-stance organisations.

• The organisation’s celebrants receive authorisation to solemnise marriages. Legally, this authorisation is held by the organisation’s head, who then appoints qualified celebrants to be registered as their “substitutes”. This is a somewhat peculiar arrangement, but it underlines that celebrants of religious and life-stance organisations always act on behalf of their organisations and are not independent contractors in their field. The organisation and its director at any given time are responsible for their work. Celebrants no longer need to verify the legal conditions for marriage before conducting a ceremony, as this is handled by the District Commissioners’ Offices. After the ceremony, celebrants submit a signed marriage certificate to Registers Iceland confirming that the marriage has taken place.

• The organisation becomes part of the state’s parish-fee system. This is the part of the registration that Flourishing does not seek in principle, since its policy on equality between religious and life-stance organisations is that the state should not financially sustain such organisations. Instead, the state should provide infrastructure ensuring that all people can say farewell to their dead with dignity, and have access to beautiful and spacious facilities that everyone can use. Members of religious and life-stance organisations should otherwise take care of their own organisations and should not use public funds for their particular needs and development. Parish fees are not “membership fees”, but an earmarked state contribution for all members of religious and life-stance organisations who are 16 years of age or older. It makes no difference whether these individuals pay income tax or not; the state therefore pays on behalf of those who do not. This annual contribution is not high: ISK 1,166 per member. Flourishing’s membership fee is ISK 6,000, or ISK 2,000 by choice, so the “parish fee” is only of practical benefit in the case of “inactive” members who would not pay a membership fee to belong to a life-stance organisation.

 

The registration is something to celebrate, and with it the organisation has completed the development of its principal foundations as an active life-stance organisation. Its development is by no means complete, however, and the next phase will involve the continued development of the organisation’s useful activities.