Ceremony reading suggestions please!!!

sueblue29 · January 2010

We are looking for some non-traditional readings for our ceremony - any suggestions? Several of the ones I've found are really long... need advice. Our first meeting with the church is next week.

cukimerrydoll · January 2010

Not really sure... but we didn't have much of an idea until after we started meeting with the church. They had some great suggestions, and a book with some different options.

Are you thinking biblical or something else? Most churches are probably going to want biblical, and they can definitely help you find something your style.

AmoroAgain · January 2010

Well, the one I have in mind would certainly only work if your church is kind of uh... liberal in their views. I like the works by the Islamic poet Khalil Gibran. He has some beautiful poems, and one of my favorites that I really wanted to use (but couldn't because no one would do a reading for us) is from his great work, "The Prophet" and is called, "On Marriage"

http://www.katsandogz.com/onmarriage.html

On Marriage
Kahlil Gibran

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

obeach8 · January 2010

If your first meeting with the church is next week, and you've never had any type of Marriage Prep course, then they will send you to one and, at the course, will give you a book of readings to choose from. Those are already 'Church Approved'. If you've had your prep course already and they didn't give you a book, then maybe start with the classics, like from the Book of Ruth ("entreat me not to leave thee, nor to return from following thee, for whither thou goest, i will go, and whither thou lodgest, i will lodge") or Corinthians.