Welcome!
What is marriage? Here’s how Jesus described it: 4 He answered, ‘Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”’ Matthew 19.4-6
Marriage is a God-established, life-long, exclusive union between a man and a woman. Jesus celebrated marriage and took it seriously, and so do we.
As for weddings, secular weddings celebrate the couple. Christian weddings also celebrate God, who gave us the gift of marriage. Couples make vows generations of couples have made before them, in humble recognition that they aren’t doing anything new or unique, but entering into something greater than themselves.
If this description of marriage and weddings resonates with you and you’re looking to get married, we’d love to help you. We offer wedding services free-of-charge in the West Kimberley, as long as the couple agrees to these expectations:
1. The couple will participate in four marriage preparation sessions (about 8 hours total) with a Minister. Prior to these, the couple pays for and completes the PREPARE questionnaire (see https://www.prepare-enrich.com for details).
2. Couples who aren’t church members participate in a short course about the Christian faith. This is to ensure they understand the faith at the heart of their wedding, and can be done alongside the marriage preparation sessions.
3. Legally, we can only conduct weddings ‘according to the rites of the Anglican Church’. There are a few versions of these ‘rites’ (i.e. services) and some parts are optional, but they all have a core that can’t be modified (e.g. vows).
4. We reserve the right to postpone the wedding at any stage if we believe that would be in the best interests of one or both parites (e.g. if there are signs of abuse) or if the couple cease to comply with any of these expectations.
