Friend Can't Get Ordained?

JoAngel32

My best friend and I are getting married within a month and a half of each other, both in the Nashville area.  She was going to have her friend perform the wedding ceremony, but said that he was not allowed to get ordained in the state of TN because he was not in the ministry, nor was he in seminary school.  Is it true that you can only get ordained to perform weddings if you are in the ministry (pastor, in seminary school, etc.)  We really want our Sunday School teacher to marry my fiance and I because we go to a huge church and aren't close with the senior pastor.  However, our Sunday School teacher is only an ordained Deacon, not pastor.  Do you think he'd have a problem getting ordained to marry us?

princesaygreg

You can officiate weddings without being a minister. You just do it online.I know several people here in TN who are officiants. Check out the Universal Life Church online. eHow say's it's the most popular. It takes 24 hours.

eastTNbride

Actually, I don't think it's legal in Tennessee. The officiant has to be an ordained minister of the clergy or a justice of the peace.

All regular ministers, preachers, pastors, priests, rabbis and other spiritual leaders of every religious belief, more than eighteen (18) years of age, having the care of souls, and all members of the county legislative bodies (Commissioners), county mayors, judges, chancellors, former chancellors and former judges of this state, former county executives or county mayors of this state, former members of quarterly county courts or county commissions, the governor, the speaker of the senate and former speakers of the senate, the speaker of the house of representatives and former speakers of the house of representatives, the county clerk of each county and the mayor of any municipality in the state may solemnize the rite of matrimony.
In order to solemnize the rite of matrimony, any such minister, preacher, pastor, priest, rabbi or other spiritual leader must be ordained or otherwise designated in conformity with the customs of a church, temple or other religious group or organization; and such customs must provide for such ordination or designation by a considered, deliberate, and responsible act.
The traditional marriage rite of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), whereby the parties simply pledge their vows one to another in the presence of the congregation, constitutes an equally effective solemnization.
(T.C.A. Code 36-3-301, et. seq)