Text of the liturgy for our Union ceremony.

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Assembly of guests & witnesses

Ingress with music

Great is thy faithfulness

Invocation

* God of all people, we rejoice in your life in the midst of our lives. You are the one true light illumining every one. You show us the way, the truth and the life. You love us even when we are unloving and unfaithful. You sustain us with your Holy Spirit. We praise you for your presence with us at all times and especially in this act of solemn covenant. We seek this through Jesus Christ our ruler and guide. Amen.

Presentation for Union by the families

• * Who stands with Gene to symbolize the tradition and family out of which he comes?
• * Do you who stand with Gene promise to do all in your power to uphold these two in their covenant of Union?
• * Who stands with Charles to symbolize the tradition and family out of which he comes?
• * Do you who stand with Charles promise to do all in your power to uphold these two in their covenant of Union?

Witness from Hebrew Scripture

Lighting of the Candles

Lighting of individual candles,

Lighting of the Unity candle,

• * We are born alone.
• * God gives each of us a spirit, a breath of life and a spark of the divine.
• * God gives us the freedom to choose what to do with that spark.
• * With our individual spirit we can light a candle, a cigarette, a bong, or a bomb.
• * The choice is ours.
• * The rewards, the consequences are ours too.
• * We choose to light candles of hope and prayer. (Pause)
• * We need not stay alone.
• * God gives us hunger for human companionship. Ministers speak in unison.
• * We, this day choose to join the flame of our candles to light a new one, We choose to unite our spirits in the common undertaking of living our lives together to create a new life for us.
• * The choice is ours. The rewards, the consequences are ours too.
• * We choose to join our individual candles of hope and prayer in lighting a common candle. (The couple jointly light the unity candle and set down their individual candles.)

Witness from the Christian Scriptures

An angel of the Lord spoke to Phillip saying, rise up and get you down south into the desert along the highway from Jerusalem to Gaza. Phillip went. An Ethiopian man, an official in the court of Queen Candace, indeed who was the officer in charge of all her possessions was on that road. He had been in Jerusalem to worship and was returning home. He was sitting on the chariot, and was reading in Isaiah. The spirit prompted Phillip to chase after the chariot. Running beside it Phillip heard the Eunuch reading in the book of Isaiah. He shouted over, "Do you know what you are reading? The man answered back, How can I if know one will explain it to me? And [he then] called Phillip onto the chariot and sat with him. Opening his mouth and beginning from this scripture Phillip preached to him the gospel of Jesus. As they continued on the highway they passed a muddy brook. The Eunuch said, Behold water! What hinders me from being baptized? Phillip replied without hesitation, It is lawful if you believe with your whole heart. Answering he said I believe Jesus Christ to be the Child of God. He commanded the chariot to stand still and they both went down into the water. Phillip baptized him. When they came out of the water the Spirit of the Lord took Phillip from there and the Eunuch did not see him again. He continued on his trip full of joy and mirth.

Eucharist for the Couple and attendants

Invitation

Confession.

Proclamation of Pardon

• * One. Know this, that God is faithful to answer our prayers. Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. Know that in the name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven.
• Many In the name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven. The Great Thanksgiving.
• One. God be with you.
• Many. And also with you.
• One. Lift up your hearts.
• Many. We lift them up to our God
• One. Let us give thanks to our ruler and God.
• Many. It is right to give God our thanks and praise.
• One. It is a right and good and joyful thing in all times and all places to give thanks unto God our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. God you formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life. When we turned away and our love failed you your love for us remained steadfast and sure. You delivered us from captivity and vowed to be our sovereign God, and spoke to us through your prophets. You brought us back from sin and slavery and death. And so with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn.
• Holy. Holy. Holy. Lord god of power and might. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed are all who come in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
• Two thousand years ago Jesus gathered a dozen low class outcasts in a rented hall in the slums of Jerusalem. Filled with wonder at the tumultuous events of the prior week they escaped the intrigue and bustle of the capitol to celebrate the Passover, a ritual meal.
• In that ceremony they recalled God's intervention in the history of the children of Abraham.
  • Together they remembered how God patiently called Pharaoh and Egypt to turn from injustice and hatred.
  • Together they remembered how their ancestors cried for freedom and received greater injustice.
  • Together they remembered how God heard their cry and delivered them from oppression and stood beside them in their pain and suffering.
  • Together they remembered how God's love brought freedom, an end to injustice and comfort to their pain and suffering.
  • Together they recalled in the ritual of Passover how Yahweh brought his people to the Promised Land.
  • Together they watched as Jesus took the rough unleavened biscuit that recalled the bread eaten in fear and flight in the Sinai desert.
• Jesus broke the flat loafs and passed the pieces to his disciples. He blessed the bread with the ancient blessing. "Blessed art thou O lord, creator of the Grain of the field". The disciples sat with the vivid image of the Passover lamb before them as Jesus told them to eat his body that was being sacrificed for them. He renewed the meaning of the Passover when he ordered them:

  "Take, eat this is my body that is broken for you. Repeat this in memory of me."

• Later in that same meal Jesus lifted up a cup of wine. The Elijah cup was set on that table for the return of Elijah. They set a place for him at the meal. As Jesus lifted the cup his disciples remembered the power of God repeated over and over in the history of their people. They remembered the repeated calls of prophets, priests and holy men. Over and over God called their ancestors turn back to God's love. As the disciples sat with their thoughts Jesus poured wine into their battered and chipped cups. He chanted the ceremonial blessing of the cup. "Blessed art thou O lord, creator of the fruit of the vine." He told them then to drink his blood. He told them that his blood would be shed for the remission of sin.
• Jesus enjoined them and us that night to keep this meal, to rejoin this ritual meal and to remember him until his return. Jesus' body and blood became our Passover lamb. As often as we eat this bread and drink this new wine we proclaim that God lived among us in the flesh of a man, that Jesus died and returned to life. We repeat this ceremony as witness to our faith that Jesus lived and that we will see Jesus as ruler of all creation. We join the company of saints who for two thousand years have kept this feast and in keeping it and remaining steadfast in their love have won their crowns.
• We proclaim with all of them the mystery of our faith:
• Christ has died.
• Christ is risen.
• Christ shall come again.
• Alleluia.
• Amen

Consecration

Breaking the bread,

Giving the bread and cup

His Eye is on the Sparrow

The wedding Song

Well one man shall leave his father and a man shall leave his home
They shall travel on to where the two shall be as one
As it was in the beginning, is now and till the end,
A man shall draw his life from God and give it back again.
And there is love. There is love.

What's to be the reason for the joining of our lives?
Is itlove that brings you here? or love that brings you life.
For If loving is the answer, tell me who's the giving for,
Do you believe in something that you've never seen before?
Oh there's love. Oh there'is love.
God is now to be among you at the calling of your hearts
Rest assured this troubador is acting on his part.
The union of your spirits here has caused him to remain
For wherever two or more of you are gathered in his name
There is love. There is love

Prayer for Holy Union

Grottaferrata (eleventh century Greek)
Office for Same Sex Union

The minister shall place the holy Gospel on the Gospel stand and they that are to be joined together shall place their hands on it, holding lighted candles in their left hands. Then shall the priest cense them and say the following:
* In peace we beseech thee O Lord.
* For heavenly peace, we beseech thee O Lord.
* For the peace of the entire world, we beseech Thee, O Lord.
* For this holy place, we beseech thee O Lord.
* That these, thy servants, Gene and Charles be sanctified with thy spiritual benediction, we beseech thee O Lord
* That their love abide without offense or scandal all the days of their lives, we beseech Thee, O Lord.
* That they be granted all things needed for salvation and godly enjoyment of life everlasting, we beseech Thee, O Lord
* That the Lord God grant unto them unashamed faithfulness and sincere love, we beseech Thee, O Lord
* That we be saved, we beseech Thee, O Lord
* Have mercy on us O God
* Lord Have mercy, Christ Have mercy, Lord have mercy The priest shall say
* Forasmuch as Thou, O Lord and Ruler art merciful and loving who didst establish humankind after thine image and likeness, who didst deem it meet that thy holy apostles Phillip and Bartholomew be united, bound one unto the other not by nature but by faith and the spirit. As Thou didst find thy holy martyrs Serge and Bacchus worthy to be united together, bless also these thy servants Gene and Charles, joined together not by the bond of nature but by faith and in the mode of the spirit, granting unto them peace and love and oneness of mind. Cleanse from their hearts every stain and impurity and vouchsafe unto them to love each other without hatred and without scandal all the days of their lives with the aid of all the saints, forasmuch as all glory is thine.

From Same sex unions in Pre Modern Europe by John Boswell Page 294

Exchange of vows

• * I Charles take you Gene, the joy of my heart and soul to be mine before God and humanity;
• * I promise to love and to cherish you from this day forward and forever more and to stand with you in adversity and in times of ease.
• * I promise to work, to play, to dream with you, and to do my best to make those dreams come true. I promise to share your laughter and to allow you to share mine.
• * I promise to respect the need of both of us to have separate space and to come back to you, as I trust you will come back to me.
• * I promise to respect you and to celebrate the ways you are different from me.
• * I promise to support you in honest self expression, to hold you gently when you are feeling overwhelmed, to grow with you as we explore the meanings of our life and our lives,
• * I take you to be that one with whom I am most vulnerable; knowing that the love we share is deep and true and can be trusted until the end of our time.
• * I promise to seek your forgiveness when we fail to live up to our covenant.

• * I Gene take you Charles, the joy of my heart and soul to be mine before God and humanity;
• * I promise to love and to cherish you from this day forward and forever more and to stand with you in adversity and in times of ease.
• * I promise to work, to play, to dream with you, and to do my best to make those dreams come true.
• * I promise to share your laughter and to allow you to share mine.
• * I promise to respect the need of both of us to have separate space and to come back to you, as I trust you will come back to me.
• * I promise to respect you and to celebrate the ways you are different from me.
• * I promise to support you in honest self expression, to hold you gently when you are feeling overwhelmed, to grow with you as we explore the meanings of our life and our lives,
• * I take you to be that one with whom I am most vulnerable; knowing that the love we share is deep and true and can be trusted until the end of our time.
• * I promise to seek your forgiveness when we fail to live up to our covenant.

  Presentation of the wedding contract,

  The ministers shall lift up the contract and proclaim: Gene and Charles have recorded on these pages a personal covenant of written vows. Let us pray. Holy God grant to Gene and Charles the grace to uphold these spoken vows and these written vows. May the bonds recorded herein be bonds of love, of joy, and of peace. This we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen

  Witness of Hebrew scriptures

  Hear the words recorded in the Hebrew writings of the Heftorah: (Isaiah 54:1-8)

  Rejoice unfruitful, Oh you who have never carried a child, break out in song and shout o you who have never known birth pains. The children of the outcast and despised are more than the children of the married wife. Expand your tent. Do not be stingy in making it larger. Lengthen your cords. Strengthen your stakes. You shall break forth on the right hand and the left. Your seed shall possess nations and your people will homestead in abandoned cities. You shall not be put down. You shall forget the shame of your youth and shall not remember the sting of being single ever again. I, Your creator am your husband. The Lord of hosts is my name. Your redeemer is the Holy God of Israel. Yahweh has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in sprit, even as the first wife of a man in mid life crisis. God has called you when you are rejected and despised. For a little time I have left you but I will gather you with great pity. In a flood of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but I will have pity on you with everlasting kindness says Yahweh your redeemer.

  Questions of the Assembled pledge of support

  Gene and Charles have chosen to unite their lives today. You the assembled have been invited to witness their covenant and to share in their joy. As friends, family and witnesses to the vows spoken today, please answer the following questions:
  • * Do you accept Gene and Charles as a couple that are joined this day in your presence, that are duly recognized as a couple by the Metropolitan Community Church and as a couple who have spoken solemn vows in the presence of God our creator, redeemer and sustainer? If so, say I do.
  • * Do you promise to support their commitment to each other? If so, say I do.
  • * Do you pledge to encourage, support and sustain the Union of their lives? If so, say I do.
  • * When Gene or Charles is tempted to drift from his partner, do you pledge to remind him of his vows, his pledges and the joy they share this day? If so, say I do.
  • May God grant you the grace and wisdom to do as you have spoken. Amen

  Eres Tu

  (Gene Sang this to Charles)Not a dry eye in the church by the time he was done.

  Una promesa eres tu, eres tu
  You are a promise
  Una maņana del verano
  You are a morning in summer
  Una sonrisa Eres tu, Eres tu
  You are a smile
  Asi asi eres tu
  This is, this is how you are.

  Una esperanza eres tu, eres tu
  You are a hope
  Una lluvia fresca en mis manos
  You are a fresh rain on my hands
  Una fuerte risa eres tu eres tu
  You are a strong smile
  Asi asi eres tu
  This is, this is how you are.

  Eres tu como el agua de mi puente.
  You are like the water of my bridge
  Eres tu el fuego de mi hogar
  You are the fire in my home
  Eres tu come el fuego de mi hogera
  You are like the fire in my hearth
  Eres tu el aguacil de me vida
  You are the potter of my life
  Una poema eres tu, eres tu
  You are a poem
  Una guitarra en la noche
  You are a guitar in the night

  Una horizonte eres tu, eres tu,
  You are a horizon
  Asi asi eres tu
  This is, this is how you are.

  Exchange of public symbols of union,

  The ring has long been a symbol of God. Without beginning or end and with no point of weakness, the circle is a reminder of the eternal quality of God and of God's unending strength. Thus these rings serve to remind us of the God who is part of both Gene and Charles' life and who is part of the relationship they have with one another. The rings are also symbols of covenant and serve as reminders of our need to be faithful in all our relationships.

  Let us pray for God's blessings upon those who give and receive these rings: Creator God bless Charles and Gene as they give and receive these rings. Remind them always of your love and faithfulness, as they faithfully love each other. Bless them in their love for each other and by your presence in their family. Amen Gene as you put this ring on Charles finger, repeat after me: Charles, I give you this ring as a sign of my vow, and with all that I am and all that I have, I honor you in the name of God our Creator, our Redeemer and our Sustainer. Charles as you put this ring on Gene's finger, repeat after me: Gene, I give you this ring as a sign of my vow, and with all that I am and all that I have, I honor you in the name of God our Creator, our Redeemer and our Sustainer.

  Jumping of the broom,

  God appeared to the Moses when he was watching sheep in the barren lands of Midian. God sent him back into Egypt, back into bondage, back to live among the black despair of the oppressed and downtrodden. Moses lived with the children of Jacob, suffered with them until God, the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob sent Moses to Pharaoh with a message: "Let my People go."
  Ten times Moses went to Pharaoh asking for freedom for his people.
  Nine times Pharaoh refused to let the Children of Israel go free.
  Nine times the answer was no and the plight of the oppressed more dire.
  Nine times Yahweh raised the ante and the people of Israel wept under the burden of oppression and injustice. For months and years we wept and prayed for our freedom.
  Finally the oppressor learned that the price of oppression was too high for the oppressor as well as the oppressed and Pharaoh let the people of Yahweh go free.
  Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt and Slavery.
  Slavery did not end in Sinai. Other peoples in other times have became slaves. Five hundred years ago our ancestors brought slaves to America from the rich warm lands of Guinea, Benin, Yovogan and Ghana. This human cargo was loaded onto ships and those that lived consigned to a life of oppression and servitude. In spite of every effort of their masters they remembered the customs of their native lands. In Africa a newly married couple received a broom to sweep away the evil spirits that would destroy their lives. In America, without recourse to civil marriage, without recourse to the blessing of the church, these African slaves cleaved to tradition and jumped the broom when couples came together to live. They did not have the blessing of either church or law on their marriages. These relationships were often split asunder by the sale of one party. Remembering their dignity in the face of oppression the couple this day will also jump the broom. In the face of injustice and prejudice that denies Gay relationships legal standing, the support of most denominations including the United Methodist Church and social approval this day Gene and Charles jump the broom.

  Let us pray: God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
  God of Sarah, Rebeccah, Leah and Rachael
  God of Joseph, Moses and Miriam,
  Hope of the oppressed and strong arm of the liberator. Come among us in your mighty and redeeming spirit this day. Look with favor upon your children Charles and Gene.
  Sweep away from their lives the dirt of the oppressor, illness, poverty and injustice.
  Bless them as they jump this broom in forming their home.
  Bless them with peace and freedom, happiness and rejoicing in the face of adversity, persecution and prejudice.
  Keep them together in the palm of your hand. For thousands of years you have been the help of the oppressed and downtrodden.
  Help Gene and Charles maintain a relationship that has neither legal sanction nor social approval. Grant them strength to hold to each other, to jump obstacles to their love and commitment even as they jump this broom this day among these assembled witnesses. Help them live as gay men, as a couple, loving in a way that works for them and finds the pleasure of your smile. We seek this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

  (The couple jumps the broom)

  Presentation of the Couple to the assembled

  The ministers present the couple and say:

  Behold the couple, surrounded by God's love and guarded before and behind by pillars of cloud during daylight and pillars of fire by night. Sin and despair are swept away. They are beloved of God.

  Prayer of Benediction

  * May God the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer bless, preserve, and keep you. May God fill you with all spiritual benediction and grace that you may faithfully live together as a couple in this life and in the age to come have life everlasting.
  • * May the road rise up to meet you,
  • * May the wind blow gently at your back,
  • * May the rain fall soft upon your fields.
  • * And Until we meet again
  • * May God gently hold you in the palm of her hand. Amen.

    Egress with music

    "What a fellowship" ________________________________________________________________

    RECEPTION FOR Baugh-Neuendorff Holy Union

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