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Officant Laws

emmy2217emmy2217 member
in Pennsylvania-Central

I live in Maryland but I am getting married in Fawn Grove, PA in July. I am so confused about the laws regarding who can marry me. I know that a person who had been ordained online may not marry anyone in PA, but I'm confused about the rest of the law. Can a minister/reverend from Maryland marry me in PA? Also the law makes it seem like the reverend must be a part of a regularly established church or congregation but then it goes to state that "This office will not determine what is/is not a church and/or congregation".

Any help is appreciated!

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Re: Officant Laws

  • daria24daria24 member
    First Comment First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Answer
    Call the York County Clerk's office to verify what I am about to tell you, just to have an "official answer." 

    With that being said, basically the way the law works in PA is that your officiant (and marriage) will be presumed valid by the Commonwealth when you file your license. The clerk isn't going to look at the officiant's name/credentials and look them up and say "OK" or "REJECT!"

    HOWEVER, if you use an online ordination, or a minister from the church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, if you and your spouse were to divorce, one of you could argue that your marriage was never legally binding because you had a friend ordained online, and the online church isn't an "Established" Church. It is a risk on your part for something that COULD happen down the line.

    An "established" Church is usually defined as one that has a physical place of meeting. So if your minister is Methodist, Baptist, Jewish, a Muslim imam, a pagan priestess, a Unitarian, etc, you have nothing to worry about. There isn't any additional paperwork the out of state minister has to do, to my knowledge, in order to perform a wedding in PA. Again, the clerk's office can confirm. 

    If your minister is not from a more traditional faith, and you think it's a murky area, there is the option to get a self-uniting license. Your minister can still perform the ceremony, you as a couple would just pronounce yourselves married at the end.

    Does that make sense?
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