Rituals

Life is full of transitions that deserve to be honored. We live more fully and freely when we take time to mark the shifts in our identities. Naming ceremonies, house blessings, divorce rites, even an interfaith feminist quincenera are some of the ways I officiate rites of passage alongside baptisms, funerals, spreading of ashes, and weddings. I am also happy to have a conversation with you about the transition you wish to mark and help you craft the right liturgy or words and symbolic acts. Life is too short to overlook rites of passage and too precious to subject yourself to rituals that don’t mean enough to you.

Weddings

Exchanging vows is a sacred act. It is something people have done for centuries and for all kinds of reasons but it is also something that you are doing together for the first time. Together, you and your beloved are speaking something new into being. In the tradition in which I am ordained, we honor that “in the beginning was the word and the word was with God.”

The words we speak matter. They create something where there was nothing. Too often, we pretend the sacredness of language is the domain of the religious.  It is not. Language that transcends our understanding and our intentions and brings us into a broader, more open-hearted consciousness is the birthright of all humankind.  I often say “literature was my first religion.” I became a student of the Bible because it had more readers than even Shakespeare and I wanted to be able to discuss story and theme with anyone I met.

But you don’t need holy scripture to promise to love someone till eternity. You just need to use your own words, as considered with thought, hope and commitment. 

As an ordained minister in a Protestant tradition, I am able to perform weddings easily in most states and to translate the wedding ceremony across generations who relate differently to this rite of passage and the legal or religious institutions that have shaped it. 

My desire is not that those being married believe what their families believe nor what I have studied but that they take time to consider what it is they are doing and saying in the half hour that will change their life. This is your marriage. Best to really mean what you say when you begin it. 

To preside at your wedding, I require three pre-marital counseling sessions plus a planning session for $125/ per meeting in person or through video conferencing plus reimbursement for travel and lodging. There is an additional fee for rehearsals if I am running them but not for the ceremony itself.