Quaker Wedding (was Re: SC - Re : OT Announcement/peanuts)

[Gwynydd of Culloden]

- ----- Original Message -----
From:  Kylie

> Are you planning any Quaker food at the "reception" fair?

*smile* Quaker food?  Hmmm, now there is a concept which hadn't occurred to
me.  I don't think that Quakers really have a particular type of cuisine
behind them - although they were involved in brewing until sometime in the
18th century and chocolate thereafter (once the "evil of drink" was
recognised, a number of prominent Quakers moved into chocolate production
(the "professions" were closed to them due to their refusal to take oaths) -
names like Cadbury, Fry, Bournville (I think)).  So, I guess beer and
chocolate *wide grin*, I think we can manage that!

> CONGRATULATIONS!

*smile* Thanks.

> So can you tell us what is involved in a Quaker ceremnony?
A Quaker wedding, is very much like any other meeting for worship.  A silent
meeting in which the participants sit in waiting for God's inspiration and
guidance and in which those who feel "moved by the spirit" to do so may rise
and speak (or sing, I suppose, but I have never seen it at a Quaker meeting
in Hobart).  At some point in the proceedings (in our case, at the end -
although it can happen in the first 15 minutes or so, the meeting then
proceeds with people speaking as they feel moved) the couple rise, take each
other's hand and face each other and then, first one and then the other, say
something like "Friends, I take this my Friend, [full name], to be my
husband/wife, promising through divine assistance, to be unto him/her a
loving and faithful wife/husband, so long as we both on earth shall live."
(When I read this to my Lady, she accused me of looking for a loophole -
emigration to the moon!)

The couple sign the wedding certificate, which records their promises,
followed by two witnesses (often the parents) and then the registering
officer reads out the whole certificate. (Everyone present is responsible
for witnessing and upholding the marriage so everyone else will sign the
certificate too, even the youngest child, but as this signing can take a
long time to complete it is usually resumed after the meeting for worship.)

The meeting is closed by everyone shaking hands with their neighbour (and
just about everyone else as well, in my experience *smile*).

We will be making a few variations to this - we will have rings which we
will exchange with our vows, there will be a unity candle, we probably won't
have the certificate read aloud, we may not use the whole vow and we may not
end with handshaking - and also ours is not an official Quaker meeting, nor
have we gone through the "Clearness Committee" and such things which precede
a Quaker wedding (to make sure that the couple knows what they are doing and
that there is nothing to prevent it from going ahead).

Gwynydd