Christian18

CHRISTIAN CEREMONY #18

MYSTICAL UNION

PRESENTATION OF THE BRIDE
Who gives this woman to be married to this man?  /  I do.  OR   Her mother and I do.

INTRODUCTION
A wedding is a joyous occasion that marks the beginning of marriage, and marriage is an institution of God typifying the mystical union between Christ and his church. Marriage is an invention of God’s wisdom to support social order, and to provide that, through well-ordered families, truth and holiness might be transmitted from one age to another, contributing to the peace and wellbeing of our nation and our world.

The Scriptures commend marriage as honourable among all peoples. In Cana of Galilee the Lord Jesus sanctioned and adorned a wedding by his presence and miraculous assistance.

In God’s holy Word we read:

“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Have you not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cling to his wife: and they two shall be one flesh.”

Thus we see that God crowns an occasion like this with honor and sacredness. Into this beautiful and holy relationship _(Bride)_ and _(Groom)_ now desire to be united. Because God meant that it should bring fulfillment and happiness to their lives, let us invoke God’s blessing as they pledge themselves to each other and make their vows before him and before these witnesses.

Prayer of invocation

Congregational hymn

COUNSEL TO COUPLE
The union that you are about to enter is the closest and the tenderest of all human relationships. To Christians, it is a bond in the Lord _(Groom)_. , the highest ideal you can have before you is given in God’s Word: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to sacrificially and selflessly love their wives as their own bodies. He that loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord the church.” “Husbands, dwell with you wives according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel (physically), and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.”

_(Bride)_ , the Bible indicates that wives are to submit themselves unto their own husbands as unto the Lord because “the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.” Yours ought not to be mere outward adornment, but an inward beauty of nature, the imperishable “ornament of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands.”

_(Groom)_ , it is essential that you realize that your wife’s submission is a sacred trust and places upon you great responsibility to provide leadership that is worthy of that trust and submission. You must learn to take responsibility for your decisions, and carefully take into account your wife’s thoughts, sensibilities and needs in the leadership you provide. In this way you will learn to move together as a couple, pursuing shared goals, winning or losing together, but always directing the raw material that life gives you and the pressures it provides so that it pushes you together rather than driving you apart. For this you will need the sweet cohesiveness of love that surpasses mere sentiment. The kind of love described in God’s Word. Love that is slow to lose patience; it looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive; it is neither anxious to impress not does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance. Love is forbearing and kind. Love knows no jealousy. Love does not boast; it is not conceited, unmannerly, selfish, irritable or mindful of wrongs. It does not rejoice in injustice, but joyfully sides with the truth. It can overlook faults. It is full of trust, full of hope, full of endurance. Love never fails.

“Whoso finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favour of the Lord.”

“Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.”

Needless to say, a union of such ideals must be entered into thoughtfully, advisedly, discreetly, reverently and in the respectful fear of God. I, a minster of the gospel, charge you both, as you stand in the presence of God and as you now make your pledge and vows to each other, to remember that love, faith and loyalty are essential foundations of a happy home. If these solemn vows are kept inviolate and if you steadfastly endeavor to do the will of your heavenly Father, your lives will be full of joy and the home you are establishing will abide in peace.

PLEDGE
Will you, _(Groom)_ take _(Bride)_ to be your wedded wife, to live together according to God’s holy ordinance? Will you love and comfort her, honor and keep her in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, until God by death shall separate you or until the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ?  /  I will.

Will you, _(Bride)_ take _(Groom)_ to be your wedded husband, to live together according to God’s holy ordinance? Will you love and comfort him, honor and keep him in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, until God by death shall separate you or until the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ?  /  I will.

_(Bride)_ , please pass your bouquet to your Maid of Honour?
Face each other and join your hands.

VOWS

_(Groom)_ , please repeat after me your wedding vows to your bride?

I, _(Groom)_ , take you, _(Bride)_ ,
to be my wedded wife,
to love you with all my heart’s affection,
to endow you will all my earthly possessions,
to give you the honour of my name,
and to share with you the grace of my God;
to have and to hold
from this day forward
for better or for worse,
for richer or for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
to comfort and to cherish you,
to honor and keep you
in joy and in sorrow
and to preserve with you this bond,
holy and unbroken,
until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
or until God by death shall separate us.
_(Bride)_ , this is my solemn promise to you.
I have loved you since I can’t remember when
and will love you ’til I can’t remember how.

_(Bride)_ , please repeat after me your wedding vows to your groom?

I, _(Bride)_ ,
take you, _(Groom)_ ,
to be my wedded husband,
to have and to hold
from this day forward
for better or for worse,
for richer or for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
to comfort and to cherish you,
to honor and keep you
in joy and in sorrow
and to preserve with you this bond,
holy and unbroken,
until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
or until God by death shall separate us.
_(Groom)_. , this is my solemn promise to you.
Where you will go I will go,
where you lodge I will lodge.
Your people shall be my people,
and your God my God.

RINGS

May I have the rings please?

_(Groom)_ , what token do you give that you will faithfully fulfill these vows?

“This ring.”

The golden circle, from time immemorial, has been a symbol of wedded love. It is made of pure gold to symbolize pure love. It is one unbroken circle to symbolize unending love. Whenever you shall see it, it will remind you of this holy moment when your lives and hearts were united in one.

_(Bride)_ , what token do you give in acknowledgement of your vows?

“This ring?”

With these emblems of purity and endless devotion showing how lasting and imperishable is the faith you have now publicly pledged, you do each other wed. These vows seal you forever.

DECLARATION
For as much as _(Bride)_ and _(Groom)_ have covenanted together in holy wedlock before God and in the presence of these witnesses, have pledged their love to each other, and have declared the same by the giving and receiving of rings and by joining hands, I, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the province of Ontario as an ordained minister of the gospel, pronounce that they are husband and wife together in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Those who God has joined together let no person come between.

PRAYER OF DEDICATION

KISS

DOCUMENTS

INTRODUCTION
With whole-hearted delight to introduce to you Mr. And Mrs. ——- .

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