GREETING

Beloved of God, we are gathered together in the sight of God to witness and bless the joining together of ________ and ________ in Christian marriage.  The covenant of marriage was established by God, who created us male and female for each other.  With his presence and power, Jesus graced a wedding at Cana of Galilee, and in his sacrificial love gave us the example for the love of husband and wife.  ________ and ________ come to give themselves to one another in this holy covenant.

DECLARATION OF INTENT

________/________, will you have ________ to be your husband/wife, to live together in marriage?  Will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health, and will you be faithful to him now and always?  (I will)

Will all of you who are family and friends do everything in your power, by the grace of God to support ________ and ________ in their marriage?  If you will please say, we will.  (We will.)

Let us pray.  God of all people, you are the true light illumining everyone.  You show us the way, the truth, and the life.  You love us even when we are disobedient.  You sustain us with your Holy Spirit.  We rejoice in your life in the midst of our lives.  We Praise you for your presence with us, and especially in this act of solemn covenant; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

1 CORINTHIANS 13

If I speak in the tongues of mortal and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.  Love is patient and kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends.  And now faith, hope and love abide, these three, and the greatest of these is love.

WEDDING VOWS

________/________, in the name of God, I take you to be my wife/husband, from this day onward, to join with you and to share, all that is to come; to give and to receive, to speak and to listen, to inspire and to respond, and in all our life together, to be loyal to you, with my whole being, as long as we both shall live.  This is my solemn vow.

STATEMENT & EXCHANGE OF RINGS

_________/________, I give you this ring as a sign of my vow.  and with all that I am and all that I have I honor you.  In the name of the Father...Amen.

DECLARATION OF MARRIAGE

You have declared your consent and vows before God and this congregation.  May God confirm your covenant and fill you both with grace.  Now that ________ and ________ have given themselves to each other by solemn vows, with the joining of hands, and the giving and receiving of rings, I announce to you that they are husband and wife; in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, those whom God has joined together let no one separate.  Amen.

PRAYER

Most gracious God, we give you tanks for your tender love in making us a covenant people through Jesus, and for consecrating in his name the marriage of ________ and ________.  May their love for each other reflect the love of Christ for us and grow from strength to strength as they faithfully serve you in the world.  Defend them from every enemy.  Lead them into all peace.  Let their love for each other be a seal upon their hearts, a mantle about their shoulders, and a crown upon their heads.  Bless them in their work and in their companionship, in the sleeping and in their waking, in their joys and in their deaths.  Finally, by your grace, bring them and all of us to that table where your saints feast for ever in your heavenly home, through Jesus our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns on God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

THE LORDS PRAYER

DISMISSAL

God the eternal keep you in love with each other, so that the peace of Christ may abide in your home.  Go to serve God and your neighbor in all that you do.  Bear witness to the love of God in this world, so that those to whom love is a stranger will find in you generous friends.  May you remain open to the infinite supply of God's love that your lives may be a blessing to yourselves, to each other, and to everyone you meet.  Where love is present, all things turn to good.  To live in love is to experience God.  May you be blessed, and may you be a blessing.  Amen.