The wedding I attended yesterday was wonderful. The ceremony was one of the most amazing I have ever attended. It was very religious with two presiding priests, psalms, standing, kneeling and lots of hymns. Both families are devoutly religious, as is the couple.
At other weddings I've attended people don't exactly sing along to the hymns and it ends up being a dull murmur that's a little lackluster in the joy department. Not yesterday. I'm pretty sure that all attendees other than myself have spent a significant portion of their lives singing in choirs because the guests knocked my socks off -- and even presented the opportunity for me to sing out because all of the amazing voices were available to drown me out.
We sang one of my favorite hymns and when we hit the refrains and all of the voices joined together in the refrain, I got chills:
God is love, and where true love is God himself is there.
It was a day of praise and celebration. It was beautiful and I am honored to have been in attendance.
Friends on Facebook and Twitter know that I attended a wedding this weekend. They may have noticed that I tweeted and removed tweets, and renamed a picture album no fewer than 10 times. I wanted it to be perfect, and I didn't want to tick people off or alienate anyone.
It was a gay wedding.
To be perfectly technical, it wasn't a formal marriage but rather a blessing of a civil union and commitment. And my reason for fear? Well, I didn't want to be judged as being an inferior Christian for attending. I'm just now becoming involved in Christian blogging circles and well, homosexuality is quite the divisive issue. Not only do people disagree, they view it as a black and white issue and completely discredit those on the other side.
Yes, this wedding was between two devout Christians. Two people who have been called to minister to others and to spread the Word of God vowed to love and honor Christ -- and to love and to love and honor each other.
God is love, and where true love is God himself is there.
I know not everyone agrees. I understand. I know people have theological differences and I respect that. I hope that others can respect that I'm unable to find fault (and don't believe it would be my place to) in two adults of sound mind and body who love each other so much that they've chosen to remain together forever. I am honored to call them friends and to have witnessed such a wonderful ceremony.
If you have questions or comments I'm happy to talk about them.
Thank you for this. I'm a "liberal" Christian living in a very right-winged area. It's hard. Congratulations to your friends!
Posted by: Jezer | August 09, 2009 at 10:11 PM
Thank you. My gay (wonderful, beautiful inside & out) sister would appreciate this post.
Although I understand why some Christians don't believe homosexuality is right, I don't understand why it's their place to judge or condemn. Isn't that God's job?
Posted by: sparklytosingle | August 09, 2009 at 10:48 PM
Sounds like a beautiful wedding!
Posted by: Audrey | August 09, 2009 at 10:50 PM
Y'know what? I'm pretty sure God is all about us standing on the side of love. Nuff said, right?
Posted by: kaleigh | August 09, 2009 at 11:16 PM
I really like your outlook. I'm glad you posted this.
Posted by: Jess | August 10, 2009 at 11:17 AM
Sounds like a beautiful wedding! Congrats to your friends!
It sucks that you were worried about how to talk about this. You respect others views and I would hope they would do the same for you. Unfortunately, it doesn't always happen that way.
Posted by: Kristabella | August 10, 2009 at 11:49 AM
It sounds like it was a beautiful day!!
Posted by: mom | August 10, 2009 at 01:07 PM
Sounds like a beautiful celebration of love. My problem has ALWAYS been how certain beliefs portray a God that "hates" a certain type of human. I could never reconcile that belief with the God that I was raised to praise. I just don't get the disconnect.
Posted by: TUWABVB | August 10, 2009 at 04:48 PM
lovely post, Nic! It's hard for me personally to comprehend how there are good people out there who don't see it the same way. I hope that it just means we all have a lot to learn.
Posted by: janet | August 10, 2009 at 07:06 PM
Episcopalian here, so I've seen firsthand the divisiveness this issue unfortunately causes, both in my church & the blogosphere.
I'm on the side of unconditional love, in my opinion, and therefore welcome your recap of this & wish the married couple the very best.
Posted by: Legallyblondemel | August 11, 2009 at 10:54 AM