Child in Ceremony

OPENING (At the appointed time the persons to be married, standing together facing the officiate, the man on the left and the woman on the right )

We are gathered here, in the presence of these witnesses, to join together this man and this woman in matrimony. It is not to be entered into unadvisedly but discreetly, sincerely and in dedication of life.

Let us pray:

Oh Lord, bless Grooms Name and Brides Name today as they join together to become a family. Though we as friends and family are not able to give them all of our knowledge, we can impart upon them hope for the future, love, strength and wisdom for what time and life brings to all of us.

Please join me in saying the 23rd Psalm,

The Lord is our Shepard I shall not want

He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul.

He guides me in paths of righteousness, for his name’s sake

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for thou art with me.

Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies,

You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows, Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the lord forever. Amen

Vows: repeat after me

I, Grooms Name/ take you, Brides Name A. Russell to be my wedded wife /to have and to hold from this day forward/, for better , for worse/, for richer for poorer,/ in sickness and in health,/ to love and to cherish/, as long as life shall last, /I pledge my fidelity and love to you.

(repeat after me)

I, Brides Name,/ take you, Grooms Name Lee Edwards, to be my wedded husband/ to have and to hold from this day forward, /for better, for worse,/ for richer for poorer, /in sickness and in health,/ to love and to cherish, as long as life shall last, /I pledge my fidelity and love to you.

Reading

We have come together here in celebration of the joining together of Grooms Name and Brides Name. There are many things to say about marriage, one that we selected for today comes from the bible, 1 Corinthians, 13 verses 4-13.

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful;

it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect;

but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.

So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Love has been with humanity since our beginning, it will be with us for uncountable generations of the future, and it unites Grooms Name and Brides Name right now.

However, this ceremony also includes Child’s name Bride’s or Groom’s son or daughter. Child’s name will you please join us?

Child’s name, your father Grooms Name and/or Brides Name who will now be your step mother and your father’s wife want to take this opportunity to include you in this ceremony and help you to understand that you are now a family. They have a token to give you to symbolize their love for you and the love they have for each other. (Give the child the token)

Ring Blessing and exchange of rings (give me the rings, I hold them up and say:)

"The ring is a circle, symbolic of eternity, unity, reincarnation and the universe. In earlier times the ring was associated with the Sun and Moon. It was an object of protection, a magical guard that warded off negativity through its continuity....

Today, the wedding ring is an outward and visible sign—signifying to all the uniting of a man and a woman in matrimony

(I give a ring to Grooms Name, repeat after me)

In token and pledge of the vow between us,/ with this ring, I thee wed.

(give ring to Brides Name, repeat after me)

In token and pledge of the vow between us, / with this ring, I thee wed.

Final Reading: Apache Blessing

Grooms Name, Brides Name and Child’s name are now a family. May the light of their love become a beacon by which they may always find one another.

Now I ask you, will this family have your love and support? (I will ask the audience) Say “I will!”

I will now bless this union by reading the Apache Blessing:

Now you will feel no rain for each of you will be shelter for the other

Now you will feel no cold for each of you will be warmth for the other

Now there is no loneliness

Now you are two persons but there is only one life before you

Go now to your dwelling to enter into the days of your life together and may your days be good and long upon the earth

Closing

Forasmuch as Grooms Name and Brides Name have consented together in wedlock and have witnessed the same each to the other and before these witnesses and have pledged their faith each to the other and have declared the same by giving and receiving a ring, by virtue of the authority vested in me as a cleric of the Church of Spiritual Humanism, and the state of Maryland I pronounce that they are husband and wife together, Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Mr. and Mrs. Grooms Name .

Grooms Name you may kiss your bride.