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We are gathered here today in the sight of God
and Angels, and in the presence of friends and loved ones, to celebrate one of life's
greatest moments – to give recognition to the worth and beauty of love, and to add
our best wishes and blessings to the words which shall unite GROOM and BRIDE in holy
matrimony
Marriage is a most honourable estate, created and instituted by God, signifying unto us
the mystical union, which also exists between Christ and the Church. So too
may this marriage be adorned by true and abiding love.
Mankind did not create love, love was created by God and only love will maintain a
marriage.
Today truly is a glorious day the Lord hath
made as today both of you are blessed with God's
greatest of all gifts - the gift of abiding love and devotion between a man and a woman.
All present here today - and those here in heart - wish both of you all the
joy, happiness and success the world has to offer.
As you travel through life together, I caution you to remember that the true measure of
success, the true avenue to joy and peace, is to be found within the love you hold in your hearts. I would ask that
you hold the key to your heart very tightly. |
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Within the Bible, nothing is of more
importance that love. We are told the crystalline and beautiful truth:
"God is Love" and we are assured that "Love conquers all".
It is love, which brings you here today, the union of your two hearts and two
spirits and as your lives continue to interweave as one pattern, remember what brought you
here.
It is love that will make this a glorious union and it is love that will cause this union
to endure.
DECLARATION
My name is Tim Addison and I am authorized by law to solemnize marriages according to
law. GROOM and BRIDE , before you are joined in marriage in my presence and in
the presence of these witnesses, I am to remind you of the solemn and binding nature of
the relationship into which you are now about to enter. Marriage, according to
Australian law, is the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others,
voluntarily entered into for life.
VOWS
Would you please face each other and join hands.
GROOM do you take BRIDE to be your wife? Do you promise to love, honour,
cherish and protect her, forsaking all others and holding only to her forevermore?
"I do"
BRIDE do you take GROOM to be your Husband? Do you promise to love, honour,
cherish and protect him, forsaking all others and holding only to him forevermore?
"I do"
Wedding Prayer (by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Let us Pray
Lord, behold our family here assembled.
We thank you for this place in which we dwell,
for the love that unites us,
for the peace accorded us this day,
for the hope with which we expect the morrow,
for the health, the work, the food,
and the bright skies that make our lives delightful;
and for our friends in all parts of the earth.
Amen
READING FROM CORINTHIANS
A marriage ceremony represents one of life's greatest commitments, but also is a
declaration of love. I wish to read to you what Paul wrote of love in a letter
to the Corinthians a long time ago.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and
angels - but do not have love, I am only sounding brass or tinkling cymbals.
Though I have the gift of prophecy and understanding all mysteries and all knowledge and
though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains – but do not have love, I am
nothing.
Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned but
do not have love, it profits me nothing.
Love endures and is kind. Love is not envious or jealous. Love
wants not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not its own, it
is not easily provoked and thinks no evil.
Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness but in the truth. Love bears all
things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love
never fails.
So faith, hope and love remain and the greatest of these is love.
VOWS TO BE REPEATED
I call upon the persons here present to witness that I GROOM take thee BRIDE, to be my
lawfully wedded wife. To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for
richer or for poorer, and I promise my love to you forevermore.
I call upon the persons here present to witness that I BRIDE take thee GROOM to be my
lawfully wedded Husband. To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for
richer or for poorer, and I promise my love to you forevermore.
Matthew 18:20
Treat yourselves and each other with respect, and remind yourselves often of what brought
you together. Give the highest priority to the tenderness, gentleness and
kindness that your connection deserves. When frustration, difficulties and
fear assail your relationship, as they threaten all relationships at one time or another,
remember to focus on what is right between you, not only the part which seems wrong.
In this way, you can ride out the storms when clouds hide the face of
the sun in your lives...remembering that even if you lose sight of it for a moment, the
sun is still there. And if each of you takes responsibility for the quality of
your life together, it will be marked by abundance and delight, for where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
EXCHANGE OF RINGS
Wedding rings are an outward and visible sign of an inward spiritual grace, signifying to
all the uniting of this man and this woman in marriage.
GROOM, Please place your ring on BRIDE’s finger and repeat after me
BRIDE, with this ring, I thee wed. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit. Amen.
And BRIDE, in placing your ring on GROOM’s finger please also repeat after me.
GROOM, with this ring, I thee wed. In the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
WEDDING HOMILY – Maureen Killoran
Today you take that very special step of consecrating the very special relationship you
have been building… and in this step you change forever the direction of your
individual life paths.
Today you begin your journey together, weaving the strands of your different lives into a
strong thread that will be your guide, no matter how stimulating or strenuous your common
path.
Take time – even in the midst of off the excitement of these days – take time to
acknowledge the blessing that you have been given, for love such as yours does not come to
every person, nor does it make itself known every day.
Cherish the blessing that is your love.
Honour the gift that is the trust you show one for the other as you literally place your
life into your loved one’s hands.
I pray that as your marriage unfolds you will come to each day with love and devotion in
your hearts. That laughter and joy will always reside in your home.
May you live with quiet grace and gentle faith; your home blessed with wide-flung doors to
welcome family and friends, that the love you build together may be shared with the wider
world.
Above all, I pray that at the end of life’s journey, you will look at one another and
know that you have loved deeply, cared fully and grown wise in the soft light of God’s
love.
CHARGE TO COUPLE
GROOM and BRIDE as the two of you come into this marriage uniting you as husband and wife,
and as you this day affirm your faith and love for one another, I would ask that you
always remember to cherish each other as special and unique individuals, that you respect
the thoughts, ideas and suggestions of one another. Be able to forgive,
do not hold grudges, and live each day that you may share it together. As from
this day forward you shall be each other's home, comfort and refuge, your marriage
strengthened by your love and respect.
CHEROKEE PRAYER
Let us Pray
God in heaven above please protect the ones we love.
We honour all you created as we pledge our hearts and lives together.
We honour mother-earth - and ask for this marriage to be abundant and grow stronger
through the seasons;
We honour fire - and ask that their union be warm and glowing with love in their hearts;
We honour wind - and ask they sail though life safe and calm as in their father's arms;
We honour water - to clean and soothe their relationship - that it may never thirst for
love;
With all the forces of the universe you created, we pray for harmony and true happiness as
they forever grow young together
AMEN
APACHE BLESSING
Now you will fell no rain, for each of you will the shelter for the other. Now you will
feel no cold, for each of you will be the warmth to the other. Now you are two persons,
but there is only one life before you. As you enter into the days of your life together,
may your days be good and long upon the earth.
PRONOUNCEMENT
GROOM and BRIDE in so much as the two of you have agreed to live together in Holy
Matrimony, have promised your love for each other by these vows, the giving of these rings
and the joining of your hands, I now declare you to be husband and wife. What
God hath joined together let no man set asunder.
BENEDICTION
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you.
May the Lord lift up his countenance unto you, and give you peace.
Congratulations, you may kiss your wife.
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