Liturgy 34.3: Weddings

This issue of Liturgy dealing with “Weddings,” guest-edited by Ruth A. Meyers, explores the changing face of marriage, reconsiderations about the agency of the couple, and the church’s responses to new understandings of scripture regarding relationships. What follows is an excerpt from the introduction by Meyers.

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Weddings are not uniquely Christian rites. Rather, as Paul Turner points out, they blend elements of romance, society, and religion. As such, they include elements drawn from local cultures, and they draw on biblical teaching in different ways.

The essays in this collection explore recent rites for several different churches: the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui (the Anglican/Episcopal Church of Hong Kong), the Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran churches (both the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American and the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod), the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and The Episcopal Church. The genesis of these rites varies. The Lutheran and Presbyterian rites were developed as part of an overall revision of those churches’ worship books, while the Roman Catholic Order of Celebrating Matrimony is a new translation of the earlier Latin typical edition. The Anglican Church in Hong Kong decided to begin its process of revising its prayer book by developing an inculturated marriage liturgy. In the Episcopal Church, new rites for marriage began as rites for blessing same-sex couples. . . .

As Martin Luther observed, “so many customs” surround wedding rites. For many centuries, Christians have blended cultural customs and societal expectations with biblical and theological understandings of marriage and human relationships. The essays that follow show how different churches bring together elements of culture and Christianity, rites that couples, guided by clergy, embody in particular ways.