Weddings at Rose Hill

Wedding Policy on Use of Facilities by Non-Members

“Christian marriage should be celebrated in the place where the community gathers to worship. As a service of Christian worship, the marriage service is under the direction of the minister and the supervision of the session.”

“For Christians marriage is a covenant through which a man and a woman are called to live out together before God their lives of discipleship. In a service of Christian marriage a lifelong commitment is made by a woman and a man to each other, publicly witnessed and acknowledged by the community of faith.”

A wedding ceremony for a Christian couple should be held in a church where God’s presence has been felt with reverence through an active association with the church. For non-members requesting the use of church facilities, the minister will counsel with the couple before granting permission in order to examine their purpose in using church facilities. Questions germane to this issue are:

• What is the purpose of wanting to be married in the church?
• What is the relation between one’s commitment to Christ and one’s wedding in the church? To please one’s parents, to add a degree of respectability to one’s marriage, or to use the church as a convenient place or a room which can accommodate a desirable number of people are unacceptable reasons for the session and pastor to grant the use of the Rose Hill facilities for a marriage ceremony or reception. These reasons do not show reverence toward God and the purpose of His Church.

An acceptable commitment by a non-member couple desiring to use both the pastor and the facilities for their wedding would be:

• That the bride or groom be a confessing Christian. “...the minister ... shall provide for discussion with the man and the woman concerning the nature of their Christian commitment, assuring that at least one is a professing Christian....”
• That the couple expresses a reverence for God and the Church with a desire to become members of a Christian Church in the area where they will reside so that the new couple may grow together in their faith in Jesus Christ.

After meeting with the couple, the pastor may decide to not perform the ceremony. “If the minister is convinced after discussion with the couple that commitment, responsibility, maturity, or Christian understanding are so lacking that the marriage is unwise, the minister shall assure the couple of the church’s continuing concern for them and not conduct the ceremony. In making this decision the minister may seek the counsel of the session.”

Furthermore the Session of Rose Hill Presbyterian Church passed a policy not to allow an outside officiant to perform weddings within our facilities because our pastors should have authority over the planning of those services. There are two exceptions:

• Former pastors of Rose Hill. “Former pastors, associate pastors, and assistant pastors may officiate at services for members of a particular church, or at services within its properties, only upon invitation from the moderator of the session or, in the case of the inability to contact the moderator, from the clerk of session.”
• Other Presbyterian pastors who successfully petition the session and, in some cases, allow for the pastor of Rose Hill to oversee the ceremony.

All quotations taken from The Book of Order.

To schedule a meeting with a pastor to discuss your wedding, please call the church office at 425-827-4649.