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Weddings at Westminster - Purpose

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PURPOSE

THE PURPOSE of this material is to provide information for those planning a wedding at Westminster Presbyterian Church where the marriage ceremony is solemnized by a Christian clergy person. The information provided here pertains primarily to the mechanics surrounding the ceremony--not with the content or meaning of the ceremony itself

YOUR WEDDING DAY, is a joyful and sacred occasion and is a promise of things to come. Marriage as a reality of your inner being is not a ceremony that can be performed for you, but an achievement that you must work for together with God’s guidance. It derives its deeper meanings of shared intimacy from what you put into it, day after day, year after year.

THE CHRISTIAN WEDDING is fundamentally different from a secular wedding in its basic presuppositions of faith, home and love. Your marriage is more than just a legal contract. It will be a commitment of love to each other and to God. In Christian marriage you seek God’s will for your lives and agree to live together as God’s children in establishing a home founded on faith, and in committing yourselves to "practice the presence of God" in all that you share.

WESTMINSTER CHURCH is glad to contribute to the happiness of its own members and to share with them in the joy of their marriage covenant with one another and with God. Also, we welcome those who are not part of our membership who come seeking sincerely God’s truth and blessing and who wish to have a wedding service in keeping with the faith and practices of the church. By "member families," it is meant those families where at least one member of the immediate family of the bride or groom is listed on the active membership roll of Westminster Presbyterian Church.

PRESBYTERIANS consider the wedding ceremony to be a religious service of worship in which all who are present participate. We gather in the holy presence of God to give thanks for the gift of marriage and to consecrate the beginnings of a new Christian home. The following statement from the constitution of the Presbyterian Church is to be kept in mind.
  "Reverence shall be expected on the part of all present, and the service shall be under the sole direction of the pastor. Such music as accompanies the ceremony should direct attention to God, who sanctifies marriage, and special care should be taken to assure that it is suitable and reverent. In all the activities surrounding the ceremony, excessive expense and ostentation should be avoided"

GOD’S BLESSINGS be richly yours as you discover together the goodness of marriage and seek to follow God’s will in your home and throughout the rest of your lives.

Revised: February, 2002