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Site Last Updated 18 June 1999 |
Links Last Checked 18 June 1999 |
Visitors Since 10 June 1999 |
Faith: Unitarian Universalist
Minister: Janet Shortall-Bates
Organist: Allison Evans Henry
MUSIC: Premiere Suite (Rondeau) by Jean Joseph Mouret
MUSIC: Firework Music (Overture, The Rejoicing, Bourrel, Minuet Finale) by George Fredrick Handel
The ushers seat guests at the church.
The minister lights the chalice upon the alter.
MINISTER: Hello and Welcome to all of you. Here today at May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Church we will witness a wedding. Let us now welcome the bridal party.
MUSIC: Trumpet Voluntary by Jeremiah Clarke
The Wedding Party enters. The bride enters last walking between her mother and father.
The attendants sit down.
The Matron of Honor and Best Man move to the alter.
The bride's parents embrace/shake hands with Groom and leave Bride with him.
We are gathered as friends of Curt and Cathy to witness their melding of their lives in the forge of marriage, a joyful union of man and woman in love and trust. Marriage is a social, legal, and religious ceremony, a union of mind, heart, body, and soul. We shall soon witness Cathy and Curt's declarations of love, friendship, trust, and commitment. The history of exchanging wedding vows is a long one, and in Western Civilization, despite the fact we are now perhaps the most progressive culture on the globe, the wedding vow is still deeply influenced by our deep cultural history of sexual oppression. But wedding vows are not really about power and who obeys who, wedding vows are about something very threatened in our world ... commitment, faith, and persistance. The history of human beings has been marked with aggression, deception, and bloodshed, but also by stirring records of the great acts of friendship and love of which people are capable. Each wedding is a celebration of the human potential for goodness, a celebration of our ability to live in love and peace. May all of us go home today renewing our commitment to live in civilized harmony with all of the human race.
And I observed another vanity under the sun: a person who is quite alone, no parent, no sibling, no child; and yet there is no end to their effort, their eyes can never have their fill of riches. For whom, then, do I work so hard and grudge myself pleasure? This, too, is vanity and the chasing of the wind. Better two than one alone, since thus their work is really profitable. If one should fall, the other helps them up. If one should rise, they can pull the other up behind them. Woe to the person who stands alone with none to help them up when they fall down. When two sleep together they find warmth, but how can one keep warm alone? Where one alone would be overcome,two will put up resistance, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Curt and Cathy, may you know great love together. May your home be a place ofhappiness for all who enter it, a place where all are renewed in each other's company, a place for growing, understanding, and laughter. When shadow and darkness creep within its walls, may it still be a place of hope, strength, and love. May those who are nearest to you be constantly enriched by the beauty and bounty of your love for one another.
Minister: The years of our lives are a cup of wine poured out for us to drink. The grapes when they are pressed give forth their good juices for the wine. Under the winepress of time our lives give forth their honor and love. Many days will both of you sit at the same table and eat and drink together. Drink now, and from this time forth may you find life's joy doubled, life's bitterness sweetened, and all things hallowed by true companionship and love.
Bride: I accept this cup and offer it to you my love and my husband to drink from as I offer you my mind, my body, and my soul to drink my love from.
Groom: I accept this cup and drink from it. (He drinks.) I offer you this cup, my love and my wife. (The bride drinks.)
MUSIC: Canon in D Major by Johann Pachelbel
MINISTER: I will now ask the Bride and Groom to come forward and declare their love for each other.
Groom's Declaration of Love: We've nourished a romatic relationship with time and the strongest of friendships. With nothing more to want in a relationship, I ask you to marry me.
Bride's Declaration of Love: Curt you won my deepest friendship, respect, trust, and confidence before you won my love. You have brought me my greatest happiness, and I want to live with you in love for the rest of my life.
MINISTER: My friends, we have come here to unite Curt and Cathy in marriage. This is an institution designed for the happiness and welfare of human beings. To be true, this outward act must be but a symbol of that which is inner and real, a sacred union ofhearts which the Church may bless and the state make legal, but which neither can create or annul. To be happy there must be a consecration of each to the other, and of both to the noblest ends of life. Believing that in such a spirit as this and with such a purpose you have now come, please join hands.
Groom's Vow: I Curt take you Cathy to be my wife. I place you before all others and all worldly matters. I will remain with you and love and respect you as long as I am living.
Bride's Vow: I Cathy take you Curt to be my husband. I place you before all others and all worldly matters. I will remain with you and love and respect you as long as I am living.
MINISTER: The circle is the symbol of eternity. It is a symbol of union and of the earth. It is a symbol of holiness and of perfection and of peace. The ring Curt gives to you Cathy and which you will wear is a symbol of the circle of shared love which you are entering now as husband and wife.
GROOM: This is a symbol of my love and a token which seals my vow to you
BRIDE: I accept this token with love and give these flowers as the symbol and seal of my vow
MINISTER: In as much as Curt Burgess and Cathy Decker have appeared before this company, declared their love for one another, and have pledged mutual vows and exchanged tokens of the same, I, by virtue of the authority given to me by the State of New York, pronounce you husband and wife and ask all to rejoice and recognize this marriage.
Len: I recognize this marriage and welcome my new son.
Barbara: I recognize this marriage and welcome my new daughter.
Harriet: I recognize this marriage and welcome my new son.
Wedding party and parents embrace.
MUSIC: All night long, at your door, but come now, wake up; go and fetch We are going to a wedding. Lucky bridegroom, Beautiful bride, Raise up the rooftop, shout! Farewell, bride, farewell Reader: Minister Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter to the other, Bride and Groom lead wedding party out to reception MUSIC: Ode to Joy by Ludwig van Beethoven Guests leave church. MUSIC: Symphony No. 5, Opus 42: Toccata by Charles-Marie WidorA Reading from
Reader: Dr. Thomas E. Blum
bridegroom, women sang of the love
between you and your bride whose dress
is the color of violets;
the young men, your companions;
tonight we shall see no more sleep
than the clear-voiced nightingale.
Take up your lyre, honey-voiced woman.
Sing of the bride whose dress is violet,
sing of the bride whose feet are graceful.
the marriage you have prayed for has come to pass,
and the bride you dreamed of is yours.
to look at you gives joy; your eyes are like honey,
love flows over your gentle face.
Aphrodite has honored you above all others.
Here comes the bridegroom, Ares' equal
and taller than the tallest giant.
Farewell, honored bridegroom, farewell
Benediction (Apache Wedding Blessing)
Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no loneliness for you.
Now there is no more loneliness.
Now you are two bodies, but there is only one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place, to enter into the days of your togetherness.
May your days be good, and long upon the earth.
Recessional
Postlude
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