Marriage Vows

Convocation

We are gathered here in the presence of God and of this company to join in holy marriage Quvante Bethea and Alyssa Kerns and to bear witness to the transforming power of love. 

Love is a quality of spirit and an attitude of emotions, but a marriage is a life’s work, a spiritual art form. Therefore this is an occasion of both profound joy and great responsibility, and we who partake in it bind ourselves as witnesses to the labor of love that Chrissy and Brandon are undertaking here. In acknowledgment of this holy purpose and of the power of this occasion, let us pray. 

Prayer

Our Father, we come before you on this holy occasion with our hearts filled with the spirit of love and thankfulness. We praise and worship you as the giver of life and creator of all good things. As we enter into this service, we give you thanks for the holy union of marriage, the most sacred of all human relationships. We pray for your presence here today and your “blessings upon Alyssa and Quavante as they enter their new life together. Above all else, we thank you for Jesus, who gives meaning, direction, and hope to all human relationships. We pray in his name. Amen.

 Please be seated.

The Giving Away of the Bride

Minister: Who presents this woman to marry this man?

Father of the Bride: Her Mother and I.

The Reading

Love is a major key in a lasting and joyous marriage. The apostle Paul expressed such love in these beautiful words from 1 Corinthians 13.

1 Corinthians 13:1–8 ESV

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

The Address

As we have heard in this reading, love in this form is the greatest of virtues, the highest spiritual work. Love is both enduring and transcendent. Such love has the capacity to deliver marriage from being merely a domestic arrangement or supportive partnership and elevate it into a spiritual enterprise. 

When we speak of marriage in spiritual terms, we are inviting ourselves into it at a much higher level.

 To participate in a marriage of this kind is not only to enter into it as the estate that will bring us happiness, but to see it also as a vessel of transformation, of suffering, and also of great joy. 

Therefore, as you step into marriage, you must remember first of all that marriage is a process of transformation. Because of it, inside of it, and in response to it, you will change most remarkably. And not necessarily or exclusively in the ways you had hoped or imagined. For marriage is the spiritual grinding stone that will polish you both to your brightest brilliance. 

It will cause you to become not only who you wanted to be, but also the person you have no choice but to be. In marriage you will be reformed, for in choosing to love and make your whole life with this person, you are choosing to be affected. You will be polished through the actions of your beloved on you, through the praise, criticism, frustration, excitement, actions, and inactions of the person you marry today.

In this regard it is important to remember that, more than you can possibly imagine, you are unconsciously drawn to precisely that person who possesses the attributes you need to be affected by in order to change. These are the very qualities that, because of their capacity to irritate and inspire you, will encourage in you the very dimensions you lack, the qualities that, as you acquire them, will represent an enlargement of your soul. Whatever is missing in your character will gradually be developed. 

You will learn to be kinder, or more gently critical, to be empathetic, or more trusting. You will be met with an invitation to transcend your own limitations—your judgments, stinginess, lack of trust, fear of intimacy, pride, self-focus—and to strive instead for their beautiful opposites.

I charge you both to grow to the place where each gets major satisfaction from sharing such love with each other. Cherish the vision of this day. Let it not be tarnished by the common trials of life. Believe in this ideal you both share; it is binding; it is good; and in all human relationships, it is the final truth.

Expression of Intent

Q: Do you take Alyssa to be your wedded wife, to live together after God’s ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony? Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, keep yourself only to her, so long as ye both shall live? 

Groom: I will.

 Alyssa: Do you take Quvante to be your wedded husband, to live together after God’s ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony? Will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, keep yourself only to him, so long as ye both shall live? 

Bride: I will.

The Vows

“Quvante , please take Alyssa by the hands and repeat after me:

“I Quvante , take you Alyssa, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God’s hold ordinance I give you my promise.”

“Alyssa, please look at Quvante after me: 

“I Alyssa, take you Quvante, to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God’s holy ordinance I give you my promise.”

Ring Ceremony

And now you are privileged to further seal these vows by giving and receiving the wedding rings.  

This golden circle from time immortal has been a symbol of wedded love. It is made of pure metal and should always symbolize the purity of the love which binds your hearts together.

 As an endless circle it should remind you of the unending love which unites your lives. May these rings be worn with great honor and be a reminder of this moment when your lives were united. And may you always endeavor to keep your vows ever before you. 

Quvante will you now take this ring and repeat after me as you place it on your bride’s finger:

“With this ring I thee wed, and upon the union of our hands and hearts, I pray the blessing of Almighty God.” 

Alyssa, will you now take this ring and repeat after me as you place it on your groom’s finger:

“With this ring I thee wed, and upon the union of our hands and hearts, I pray the blessing of Almighty God.”

Pronouncement of Marriage

Forasmuch as Quvante and Alyssa have consented together in holy wedlock and have witnessed the same before God and this company and have pledged their faith and love to each other, and have declared the same by exchanging vows, and by giving and receiving rings, I pronounce that they are man and wife, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Quvante, You may kiss the bride!

 Presentation of Bride and Groom

And now it is my privilege to present to you Mr. and Mrs. Quvante and Alyssa Bathea. ”

Invitation to Reception

The bride and groom would like to invite you to a reception in their honor starting at 4Pm at the

Gore Fire Hall

7184 North Western Pike

Gore, VA