"The more we love, the greater becomes our capacity to love"
 

 

The New Universal Church recognizes the right of any two or more individuals to acknowledge their union of love. Any wording is valid to describe this union including affirmation of love, life partnership, hand fasting, or marriage.

A very important role of any minister is to officiate marriage ceremonies. Today there are many different types of these ceremonies. The best ceremony is often the one that includes personal vows. For more training and copies of different ceremonies please check out Marriage Package.

Below is a ceremony that may be altered to fit most circumstances.

Marriage Ceremonies

We are gathered here today to celebrate one of life's greatest moments, to give recognition to the worth and beauty of love, and to add our best wishes to the words which shall join_______________________ and ____________________________ in marriage.

Should there be anyone who has cause why this couple should not be united in marriage,
they must speak now or forever hold their peace.
 
____________________and _______________________ , I would ask that you always treat yourself and each other with respect, and remind yourselves often of what brought you together today. Give the highest priority to the tenderness, gentleness and kindness that your marriage deserves. When frustration and difficulty assail your marriage - as they do to every relationship at one time or another - focus on what still seems right between you, not only the part that seems wrong. This way, when clouds of trouble hide the sun in your lives and you lose sight of it for a moment, you can remember that the sun is still there. And if each of you will take responsibility for the quality of your life together, it will be marked by abundance and happiness.

 VOWS
(use these vows or write your own.)

 ________________, do you take _______________ to be your Wife? Do you promise to love,
honor, cherish and protect her, forsaking all others while holding only unto her forevermore?
 ("I do")

(________________, do you take __________________ to be your Husband? Do you promise to love,
honor, cherish and protect him, forsaking all others while holding only unto him forevermore?"
(I do")
 
REPEATED VOWS
 (If rings are exchanged each does so and repeats the following vows - unless you have your own vows
or do not wish to repeat vows. It is not required that a couple exchange rings.) I _____________, take thee, ________________ to be my Wife.
Wear this ring as a pledge of my fidelity and everlasting love. I _____________, take thee, ________________ to be my Husband.
Wear this ring as a pledge of my fidelity and everlasting love.


____________________________ and ___________________________ 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 forever 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 for each other.

Just as two threads woven in opposite directions will form a most beautiful tapestry, so too can your two lives merged together make a beautiful marriage. To make your relationship work will take love. This is the core of your marriage and why you are here today. It will take trust, to know in your hearts that you truly want the best for each other. It will take dedication, to stay open to one another - and to learn and grow together. It will take faith, to go forward together without knowing exactly what the future brings. And it will take commitment, to hold true to the journey you both pledge today to share together.

Pronouncement of couple as Husband and Wife

Marriage Poems

To Be One With Each Other
by George Eliot

What greater thing is there for two human souls
than to feel that they are joined together to strengthen
each other in all labor, to minister to each other in all sorrow,
to share with each other in all gladness,
to be one with each other in the
silent unspoken memories?

I Promise
by Dorothy R. Colgan

I promise to give you the best of myself
and to ask of you no more than you can give.

I promise to respect you as your own person
and to realize that your interests, desires and needs
are no less important than my own. I promise to share with you my time and my attention
and to bring joy, strength and imagination to our relationship.

I promise to keep myself open to you,
to let you see through the window of my world
into my innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams. I promise to grow along with you,
to be willing to face changes in order to keep
our relationship alive and exciting.

I promise to love you in good times and bad,
with all I have to give and all I feel inside
in the only way I know how,
completely and forever.