Humanist Wedding
One of the clearest indicators to me that times are changing was attending my first humanist wedding. I’d never heard of such a thing before and assumed that people who didn’t want to do the God thing went to a Registry Office. Indeed in England and Wales a humanist wedding is not legal and attendance at the Registry Office is still required. But here in Scotland a humanist celebrant can legally carry out a wedding so yesterday was a proper wedding. Without any kind of formal liturgy the couple can have as unusual a wedding as they desire or as solemn as any funeral. They called it a celebration of love in front of family and friends and all the elements of any good wedding were there, the beautful bride, the tears, the over-running reception, the drink… Yet for me there was something missing. By taking God completely out of the equation it was empty, it took something that God ordained Himself and sucked all the mystical magic out of the event. How can one have a wedding without God at the centre? To me you can’t as yesterday showed. So for me it was sad, but good on them for not being hypocritical and going for a church wedding they don’t believe in. Times are changing. Oh yes, did I mention that the whole day took place in a church? No sense of irony there then!
John Adams Said,
August 15, 2008 @ 6:51 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7562915.stm
Duncan Robertson Said,
August 18, 2008 @ 10:05 am
I note your remarks about the Humanist Wedding. You refer to the fact that there was something missing stating; “By taking God completely out of the equation it was empty, it took something that God ordained Himself and sucked all the mystical magic out of the event” I feel you are not being realistic here. A wedding is about love the human spirit, the relationship between two people who recogise the love they have found. A love they wish to share with their family and friends. It is not about some mythical God, about brainwashing, think about it! In terms of the size of the universe the physical presence of a human being is not even the size of a spec of dust; on the other hand perhaps some egos are. A church is a name given to a type of building designed and created by the hands of man using the natural materials of the planet.
Gordon J Said,
September 2, 2008 @ 10:57 am
I think Duncan Robertson’s comments are unfair and a little unkind. Firstly, the question of whether anything is “missing” in the Humanist wedding was not presented as a fact but introduced with “for me”. To then slate that person’s opinion as brainwashed is simply mean, particularly when that opinion is expressed by a church minister on a church website. What did you expect? Secondly, while I can appreciate that some people might regard the concept of a deity as absurd, terms such as human spirit and love are themselves hard to quantify scientifically. Thirdly, I imagine that in terms of the size of the universe the physical presence of a human being is actually far greater than the size of a spec of dust. I admit that I haven’t personally experienced the immense vastness of the cosmos but I have hoovered my living room!
Free Thinker Said,
February 17, 2009 @ 9:27 pm
“How can one have a wedding without God at the centre?”
By having the love between two people as it’s centre.
The only thing missing in an English or Welsh Humanist ceremony is the legal status it should have.
A religious ceremony is simply a Humanist ceremony with some dogma tagged on!