Worship
Weddings
The Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage
The marriage of two people is a holy union. It begins with your desire to form a lasting, life-long partnership with another in God’s love, and continues throughout your lives as a process of intentional living and growing together. In a marriage, each of you as an individual, and together as a couple, gradually transform and mature in God’s presence and image.
A wedding, then, is a rite of passage, a sacred ritual that celebrates your desire to enter into a life-long relationship. By uniting within the context of a faith community, you recognize that God is active in the love you feel for one another, and you place your relationship in God’s care. Your individual stories – and your story as a couple – are celebrated in the context of the story of God and God’s ways with the human community, as understood within a particular community of faith.
In a Christian marriage, your personal stories are seen in the light of God’s action in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ’s unfolding pattern in our lives is one of dying to self and rising to Christ, of transformation, and of self-offering. A Christian relationship is the living out of a self-giving way of being in community with one another, in the larger context of the Christian community. Through a wedding, you as a couple enter into a life-long commitment. You make your vows before God and the gathered community of family, friends and the Church, and receive the grace and blessing of God to help you fulfill your vows. Your marriage is a sacrament – an outward and visible expression of God’s grace in bringing you together and nurturing your love.
Weddings in the Episcopal Church
A wedding in the Episcopal Church is governed by The Book of Common Prayer, Canon Law and the laws of the State. The Book of Common Prayer is the foundation for all Episcopal worship services – referred to as liturgies in the Episcopal Church – and provides the liturgical framework by which a wedding is celebrated.
To be united in the Episcopal Church, it is required that:
- at least one of the couple be a baptized Christian,
- the ceremony be attested to by at least two witnesses, and
- the marriage must conform to the laws of the State and the Canons of the Church.
Scheduling your wedding date at least six months in advance is advisable. This allows plenty of time to plan your liturgy, complete your series of counseling sessions, and meet with the priest who will officiate at your wedding.
Please see Trinity's Guidelines for Marriage.