A Wee Celebration...

Tonight I had a 'first' experience. I was asked back in January to take a service for a couple who wanted to 'renew' their wedding vows and celebrate their 41st wedding anniversary. The service was to be about 30 minutes with a reception to follow at the Goodyear Club.

Over the past months, I worked with the couple to make the service one of celebration. Interesting, in my conversations with them, they had never been unfaithful to each other--all 41 years of marriage and even during their courtship/dating before hand. This was beautiful and made me question the terminology "renew" with regards to wedding vows. At least according to the Common Order of the Church of Scotland, the renewal of vows or recommittment of the persons to each other was meant to be used when one or both were unfaithful. This wasn't the case for these beautiful people, they just wanted to celebrate & mark the moment of this anniversary. So I opted to change the wording of the liturgy to fit their experience. Instead of the word "renew" i inserted the word "remember", keeping the words, "to reaffirm their commitment to each other".

"I, N________ in the presence of God,
remember my commitment to you N______
As your husband/wife, I give thanks that you have shared my life.
All that I am and all that I have, I continue to share with you.
Whatever the future holds, I will love you and stand by you,
as long as we both shall live."
(edited by me, from the Common Order of the Church of Scotland, St Andrew's Press, Edinburgh,pg 243)

The chairs were arranged in a circle, so that when they were saying the above to each other, they were surrounded by their family and friends and all the memories of the past 41 years.

Thanks be to God for these beautiful people and the opportunity to honour them.

J