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Good morning to you.Ìý Today I’m expecting to conduct a Christian marriage service.Ìý It’s one of the things ordained ministers do.Ìý I’ll view the occasion with a bit of trepidation, because all sorts of things can go wrong with weddings – and they do!Ìý Last time I presided at such a service, I dropped the wedding rings.Ìý In fact, I dropped the bridegroom’s ring twice, which may be a record.Ìý Fortunately, the church didn’t have one of those fatal heating grills which could swallow the rings for ever, and equally fortunately the best man was kind enough to get down on the floor to retrieve them.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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Asking a couple to make their vows is a serious, even solemn thing. (Older books refer indeed to the ‘solemnisation’ of matrimony.)Ìý It’s also one of those occasions on which a minister hopes to speak to a congregation whose encounters with formal religion may well be rare these days.Ìý There’ll be a hundred in church today, and I shall try to speak about love as the focus not just of a romantic relationship, but of the whole gospel of Jesus Christ.Ìý The choice of any couple to receive God’s blessing on their marriage may sometimes be quite casual, and made as much to improve the photos or please their parents as it is to express their own religious commitment.Ìý It’s still a choice, and a choice, I believe, worth responding to generously.

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Maybe this morning you would like to give thanks for your own marriage.Ìý Maybe you’d like to pray for a couple you know who are having a difficult time.

Maybe you’d pray with me for those who today, in hotels, registry offices or churches, will make their vows.

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Loving God, help us all to express love for one another, and in doing so, to come closer to you.Ìý Amen.

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