BACK MUSICAL PRELUDE WEDDING PROCESSIONAL - THE ENTRANCE OPENING WORDS AND PRAYER OF INVOCATION CANDLE LIGHTING SCRIPTURE AND OTHER READINGS WEDDING ADDRESS DECLARATION OF INTENT BLESSING OF FAMILY EXCHANGE OF VOWS EXCHANGE OF RINGS DECLARATION AND BLESSING OF MARRIAGE LIGHTING THE MARRIAGE CANDLE PRESENTATION OF FLOWER OR SPECIAL GIFT PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION AND THE LORD'S PRAYER SIGNING OF REGISTER INTRODUCTION OF COUPLE AND RECESSIONAL RENEWAL OF VOWS

There will be a least two, normally three, scripture readings. Often family members, relatives, or friends and/or members of the wedding party will read one or more of the passages. These persons should be present at the rehearsal. The last reading is read by the minister.

Many couples have extra readings that are not taken from Christian Scripture. Poems, Meditations, and other kinds of "statements" (written by others or by the bride and/or groom) can be used. These readings can be shared by a guest of the couple, the couple themselves, or the presider. They are often read just prior to or just after the scripture readings. A sample of some that have been used by other folk is included here after the listing of the most common scripture readings.

I Corinthians 13 (often by a guest)
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. {2} And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. {3} 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. {4} Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant {5} or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; {6} it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. {7} It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. {8} Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. {9} For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; {10} but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. {11} When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. {12} For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. {13} And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

John 15:9-12 (often by the Presider)
The greatest gift of God we give and receive in marriage is love. Jesus spoke about love and about the obedience to God that preserves love, with these words ------ As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. {10} If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. {11} I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. {12} "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Matthew 19:4-6 (often by the Presider)
Jesus also said, "Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' {5} and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? {6} So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no person put asunder."

Secular Reading One: When God Created Man
When God created man and placed him in the Garden of Eden he saw that it was not good for man to live alone. So God prepared a helper and a companion for man - woman. In this act of creation, God didn't take the woman from man's head, lest she should rule over him; nor from his feet, lest he should trample upon her- but from his side, that she should be equal with him, and from close to his heart, that he should love, cherish, and honour her. Then God presented woman to man that each might be the other's helper and companion. Marriage is God's gift to deliver us from our isolation and loneliness. It is our opportunity to give each other the gifts of God and to receive the gifts of God from each other.

Secular Reading Two :Marriage Is A Promise of Love (by Edmund O'Neill)
Marriage is a commitment to life - to the best that two people can find and bring out in each other. It offers opportunities for sharing and growth no other human relationship can equal, a physical and emotional joining that is promised for a lifetime.

Within the circle of its love, marriage encompasses all of life's most important relationships. A wife and a husband are each other's best friend, confidant, lover, teacher, listener, and critic. There may come times when one partner is heartbroken or ailing, and the love of the other may resemble the tender caring of a parent for a child.

Marriage deepens and enriches every facet of life. Happiness is fuller; memories are fresher; commitment is stronger; even anger is felt more strongly, and passes away more quickly.

Marriage understands and forgives the mistakes life is unable to avoid. It encourages and nurtures new life, new experiences, and new ways of expressing love through the seasons of life.

When two people pledge to love and care for each other in marriage, they create a spirit unique to themselves, which binds them closer than any spoken or written words. Marriage is a promise, a potential, made in the hearts of two people who love, which takes a lifetime to fulfil.

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