Skip to main content
Interfaith and Nature-Based

Interfaith Ceremony with a Nature Theme

By February 17, 2024No Comments

This couple has Christian and Jewish backgrounds but are now members of a Unitarian Universalist congregation and have been exploring Buddhism. They wanted to make all their guests comfortable with the ceremony but to acknowledge their beliefs and their concern for the environment. Nature is the unifying theme for the songs and readings included in this twist on a traditional wedding ceremony.

Ceremony Script

Prelude

30 minutes of music by piano player as guests arrive and are seated.

Processional

Officiant moves to  the pulpit and signals piano player to begin processional.
Groomsmen walk down aisle.
Best man walks down aisle.
Groom’s mom escorts him down the aisle and stays with him.
Bridesmaids walk down the aisle.
Maid of honor walks down the aisle.
Please stand if you are able.
Bride’s dad escorts her down the aisle.
Mom and Dad bring Bride and Groom’ hands together, may offer a quiet blessing. When Bride and Groom are holding hands Mom and Dad take their seats.

Welcome

Please be seated. Friends and family, welcome! My name is Reverend Debbie Philp, and it is wonderful to be here with you today to witness and bless the union of Groom and Bride as husband and wife. We come together in community to wish Bride and Groom a long and happy life together.

Remembering of Loved Ones

Not everyone invited could be with us today, but we feel the presence of those who are absent. Our thoughts are also with loved ones who have passed on and could not be here, including names. May their spirits grace our hearts today and, Bride and Groom, may you feel their presence every day of your marriage, and may their memories be a blessing.

Reading

Bride and Groom have chosen to hear verses from Song of Songs. I invite Groom’s grandmother to come forward to recite them.

I hear my Beloved.
See how he comes
leaping on the mountains,
bounding over the hills,
My beloved is like a gazelle,
like a young stag.
See where he stands
behind our wall. He looks in at the window,
He peers through the lattice.
My beloved lifts up his voice,
he says to me,
“Come then, my love,
my lovely one, come.
My dove hiding in the clefts of the rock,
In coverts of the cliff,
show me your face,
let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet
and your face is beautiful.”
My beloved is mine and I am his.
He said to me:
“Set me like a seal on your heart
Like a seal on your arm.
For love is strong as death,
Jealousy relentless as Sheol.
The flash of it is a flash of fire,
A flame of the Lord himself.”
Love no flood can quench
no torrent drown.

Reader returns to her seat. (Song Of Songs 2:8-10, 14, 16a; 8:6-7a)

Wedding Address

“For love is strong as death.” Love, like death, is universal, and just as mysterious. Throughout time, poets, philosophers, and prophets, priests, rabbis, gurus, and reverends, have all attempted to say what love is, like Solomon did in the reading we heard. Within all of that we may find some universal truths about love. We may agree that love exists in the compassion we have for one another. We can acknowledge that love is the motivation when we sacrifice for one another. And we can accept that love is present when we rejoice together and when we cry together.

We all know love, not only as a noun, the affectionate feeling, but as an action, to put someone else’s best interest above your own. And we attribute it to a mysterious bond, that none of us, including all of those poets, philosophers, and prophets, can ever really quite define. That is love.

One other constant that we can find when it comes to love across so many faiths and philosophies, is that love hinges on our connectedness to one another. For many Eastern faiths, like Buddhism, this connection is quite literal. You and I are one. In the Abrahamic traditions, we are all connected by the love of God. In cultures around the world, we recognize oneness in our humanity.

Today Bride and Groom have chosen to affirm that oneness to each another and to us as witnesses, as they join their lives together in love.

Declaration of Intent

And so, Bride and Groom, if it is your intent to be joined together in marriage, take each other’s hands.

Bride hands bouquet to Maid of Honor. Couple faces each other and joins hands.

Do you, Groom, take Bride as your wife, and do you promise your friendship and love, in good times and in difficult times, from this day forth?

[Groom] I do.

Do you, Bride, take Groom as your husband, and do you promise your friendship and love, in good times and in difficult times, from this day forth?

[Bride] I do.

 

Vows

Groom and Bride, you have stated your intention to be married, and now you will make your vows to each other.

Groom, I invite you to speak your vows to Bride.

Groom reads personalized vows.

Bride, I now invite you to speak your vows to Groom.

Bride reads personalized vows.

Song

Soloist sings “Love Makes a Bridge.”

Exchange of Rings

May we have the rings, please.

Best man hands rings to officiant

The ring is a wedding symbol, representing commitment and love that, like a circle, has no beginning and no end. Bride and Groom, let these rings that you exchange be an outward sign of your love and remind you always of what you have promised today.

O Universal Love, bless these rings and the giving of them. Let the rings be a constant reminder of Bride and Groom’s enduring and endless love for each other. Amen.

Groom, please place this ring on Bride’s finger and repeat after me: “Bride, I give this ring to you as a sign of my eternal love for you.”

Groom repeats

Bride, please place this ring on Groom’ finger and repeat after me: “Groom, I give this ring to you as a sign of my eternal love for you.”

Bride repeats

Promise of Support

Although this marriage is the choice and responsibility of Groom and Bride, still, their life together will be enhanced by the support of their family and friends. They ask you now for your promise to be there for them by responding “we will” to this question. Will you encourage and support Bride and Groom in their loving union, and stand behind them and not between them?

[Guests] We will.

 

Prayer

Let us pray.

Universal Love, we thank you for blessing this union. Let their love for each other be a seal upon their hearts. Grant them wisdom and devotion in the ordering of their common life, that each may be to the other a strength in need, a comfort in sorrow, and a companion in joy. Give them such fulfillment of their mutual affection that they may reach out in love and concern for others and all the living world, affirming the oneness of all. Amen.

Pronouncement and Kiss

Bride and Groom, you have proclaimed your love for one another, founded in oneness, as we are all one with the Universe, in the sight of myself and of these witnesses. By the power vested in my by the State of New York, it is my great pleasure to pronounce you married!

You may kiss.

Recessional

Bride and Groom go down the aisle, followed by Maid of Honor and Best Man, then bridesmaids and groomsmen, paired. Parents and family members follow after.