09/17/2013
The MODERN MARRIAGE CEREMONY
Friends, we are gathered here to join this man and this woman in marriage. Marriage is a unioin which is one of the deepest mysteries of all human experience. It's a wonderful moment in life when two people, who were once total strangers to each other, are joined to together by such a mutual attraction that their spirits cannot be divided even when they are physically apart.
To bridge and groom: Both of you today are performing an act of utter faith, believing in one another for your hopes and dreams, your security, and in fact, your entire future. A union of this importantance is not to be entered into lightly or unadvisedly, but with a great deal of deliberation, forethought and sureness of mind. We always presume when we see two people getting married, that they are in love with each other.
Love is defined in an ancient reading: Love is patient, love is kind, love is never envious, makes no parade, is never rude, never resentful. Love is never glad when others go wrong; Love is gladdened by goodness, always slow to criticize, always eager to believe the best. Love never counts the cost. Love never keeps scores of wrongs. Now abides faith, hope and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.
To groom: Do you take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, and do you promise, forsaking all others, to stay with her and her only from this day forward?
Groom: I do.
Bride is asked same wquestion and responds: I do.
Exchange of rings and if requested, a brief prayer.
Pronouncement: Inas much as both of you have consentedd together in marriage and have witnessed your desire to be married, and have further commited yourselves one to another, and pledged yourselves one to another, by the taking of these vows, by the giving and the receiving of the rings, and by the joining of your hands, by the power invested in me, I now pronounce that you are husband and wife. What Has been joined together, let no one put assunder.
You may kiss the bride.