David Alan Jenner

NVOCATION * Please Be Seated

Welcome family and friends. We are gathered here today to witness and celebrate the marriage of Bill Donnell and Pirly Ladica. This is not the beginning of a new relationship but an acknowledgment of the next chapter in their lives together. Bill and Pirly have spent years getting to know each other, and we now bear witness to what their relationship has become. Today, they will affirm this bond formally and publicly.

Bill and Pirly will mark their transition as a couple not only by celebrating the love between themselves, but by also celebrating the love between all of us—including the love of their family and friends. Without that love, today would be far less joyous.

READING

I want to read All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum. Let’s reflect on how the things we learned in Kindergarten also apply to how we treat our spouse and loved ones.

“All of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.

These are the things I learned…

· Share everything.

· Play fair.

· Don’t hit people.

· Put things back where you found them.

· Clean up your own mess.

· Don’t take things that aren’t yours.

· Say sorry when you hurt somebody.

· Wash your hands before you eat.

· Flush.

· Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Give them to someone who feels sad.

· Live a balanced life.

· Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day.

· Take a nap every afternoon.

· Be aware of wonder.

Remember the little seed in the plastic cup? The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.”

SCRIPTURE

A reading from the Apostle Paul, the first letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 13, verses 4 through 7: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Please join me in prayer: Father, as these two pledge themselves to each other, help them and bless them that their love may be pure, and their vows may be true. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

DECLARATION OF INTENT

Do you, Bill, take Pirly to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and not so good times, for richer or poorer, keeping yourself unto her for as long as you both shall live?

*I do.

Do you, Pirly, take Bill to be your lawfully wedded husband? To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and not so good times, for richer or poorer, keeping yourself unto him for as long as you both shall live?

*I do.

RING EXCHANGE

A ring is an unbroken circle, with ends that have been joined together, and it represents your union. It is a symbol of infinite love. When you look at these rings on your hands, be reminded of this moment, your commitment, and the love you now feel for each other.

Bill, place the ring on Pirly's finger and repeat after me:

Pirly, with this ring,

I marry you

and pledge my love to you

now and forever.

And now... Pirly, place the ring on Bill's finger and repeat after me:

Bill, with this ring,

I marry you

and pledge my love to you

now and forever.

PRONOUNCEMENT

Before these witnesses, you have pledged to be joined in marriage. You have now sealed this pledge with your wedding rings. By the authority vested in me by the Commonwealth of Virginia, I now pronounce you husband and wife!

You may kiss the bride!