Unconventional wedding and "ordination"

[seeker63]

I need an excuse that when I give it to the question, “Why didn’t you go to the wedding?,” will answer all questions once and for all and not leave the door open for a prolonged third-degree session.

 

[AuntMartha]

So seeker, did you go? I’m just dying of curiosity about this!

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

TOME:

About the Unconventional wedding and ordination, I really cannot judge the intent of the couple as to whether or not their intentions are rooted conscienciously in a form of anti-church (ie anti - catholicism) However, about the wedding itself it should be pointed out to them it is they who are the ones who are doing the marriage the sacrament of marriage (if there is a sacramentin this situation) is between the women and man - it’s not the priest who is marrying them. Also, I would ask to please don’t make a double mockery of sacraments of vocation (vocation = a call to life-long giving of ones self to service).

Off topic comment following!

I am just going to take this chance to let you know a bit about Byzantine Traditions as practiced by the Byzantine Catholic Churches and the Orthodox Churches.

In the Western Theological tradition it is the couple who confer the Sacrament of Marriage, the priest or deacon witness.

In the Byzantine Theological tradition it is the priest who confers the Mystery of Crowning (otherwise known as the Sacrament of Marriage). This is why a deacon can not preside at a wedding in the Byzantine Churches. There are also no vows exchanged between the couple in a Byzantine wedding.

Just thought I would let you know.

Now back to the topic.

 

[byzmelkite]

seeker63:

A buddy of mine will be married soon. He and his live-in intended regard themselves as “practically married already”—you know the routine.

Anyway, they want all their friends to go online and get “ordained” through any of several quicky ordination “churches” like the Church of the Subgenius, et. al., so they can be “married” by all their friends collectively. (You fill out a form or answer questions, you may or may not pay a fee, and then you get “ordained.” I looked at some of the sites the couple suggested, and one even said it provided a fancy document with a seal, designed to “look official.”)

Of course, I’m not going to get ordained like that–it seems to me a mockery of the Sacrament, but should I or should I not attend the wedding?

Since its not a real marriage why would you attend? Personally, I wouldn’t.

 

[byzmelkite]

seeker63:

Well, first off, I would never consider going through with a phony “ordination.”

As for the couple, they say they are still trying to decide who will do the main conducting of vows, but they also want to do this thing where everybody “gets ordained” and helps.

I know nothing of the background of the bride. The groom has a Jewish father. I don’t know about his mother, but he doesn’t seem to belong to any particular faith.

He’s a nice guy, but I have had to distance myself from him now and again. A few years back when the economy was at its worst and I was job-hunting after a lay-off (I still am hunting, but that’s another story), I got seriously depressed and he tried to get me into some cultish thing he was involved in, the Landmark Forum/Landmark Education, which is a spin-off of Werner Erhard’s old “est” thing. I read up enough about it online to know I didn’t want to get within a mile of junk like that, and told him thank you no.

They sound like freaks. Why do you have anything to do with them at all?

 

[byzmelkite]

seeker63:

Actually, when he heard I converted to Catholicism last year his exact words were “what possessed you?” So no, I’m pretty sure he isn’t Catholic.

From my brief research into these…what I’ll call “mail order churches/ordinations”…most seem to take the position that the law doesn’t allow religious discrimination, and so will not weigh in on what religion is a real one and what religion is bogus, so these “churches” hold that if Church XYZ says Joe Blow is one of their ordained ministers, then he in fact is a minister, and as such can perform weddings.

But if you have so little regard for organized religion as that, wouldn’t it just be easier to declare yourself man and wife through a common law arrangement?

And let’s not even get into the whole bit about gay marriage ceremonies…

Anyway, the more and more I think about this wedding the more weirded out I get. I just need to think up a good excuse now for skipping it, because I’d initially said I’d try to make it—but that was before I knew how weird the service would be.

Why do you need a good excuse? Just tell him you are not interested in attending.

 

[byzmelkite]

Oh sorry, I see the wedding was on the 4th and you didn’t go. Well, I don’t think you need an excuse. Just tell them you didn’t want to go.