Lay preachers performing weddings and funerals

[ffutures]

For an SF RPG I'm writing I need a version of Christianity, preferably reasonably mainstream, in which a lay preacher would be allowed to conduct weddings, funerals, etc. if there was no ordained minister available, or might be given permission to do so. I don't really need much more than the name, I just don't want to name a sect that definitely

Comments

[deird1]

I'd say Baptist - although not necessarily American Baptist - or Pentacostal.

Not so likely to go in for "ordination is necessary" ideas.

[ffutures]

Thanks!

[melyanna]

My guess would be that there are some Baptist groups that don't follow a formal ordination process. There are so many independent Baptist churches out there that it's totally plausible that a lay preacher would be performing weddings and funerals.

I do wonder why your setting doesn't have a chaplain, although it's probably just my assumption that the military would be involved in colonizing space.

[ffutures]

The way it's set up everyone is working very hard just to stay alive, there's not much room for a specialised chaplain. I've been assuming someone who is mainly a technician, but has a sideline as a lay preacher when the need arises.

[rj_anderson]

There are no ordained ministers in the Plymouth Brethren -- "Open Brethren" congregations in particular are similar to Baptist or Independent Bible Churches in many respects, but have a body of elders rather than a single pastor and use a variety of lay preachers for ministry. My father has been a full-time lay preacher for most of his life and has performed many weddings and funerals in his time.

I could easily imagine somebody from the Open Brethren going to Titan as a missionary or chaplain -- the Brethren have a long history of missionary activity, including some world-famous folks like Eric Liddell (of Chariots of Fire fame) and Jim Elliot (one of the five martyrs of Ecuador).

[ffutures]

Great - that's exactly what I need, many thanks!

[marycatelli]

Catholic.

In fact, if there is no priest available for a reasonable amount of time (about three months) technically what the bride and groom need is witnesses.

[ffutures]

Really? Everything I found seemed to say otherwise.

Here's the canon law

[marycatelli]

Can. 1116 §1 If one who, in accordance with the law, is competent to assist, cannot be present or be approached without grave inconvenience, those who intend to enter a true marriage can validly and lawfully contract in the presence of witnesses only:

1° in danger of death;

2° apart from danger of death, provided it is prudently foreseen that this state of affairs will continue for a month.

Re: Here's the canon law

[criccieth]

Yep. The reason being that in the Catholic Church, the priest does NOT marry the couple - the couple marry themselves. The priest is simply there as God's witness and a public witness.

[joereaves]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/subdivisions/quakers_1.shtml

Doesn't specifically mention weddings but I know quakers do do weddings (because in the UK they're saying that the law making gay weddings civil only is unfair and they want the legal right to perform them in the way they perform heterosexual ones) and since they feel priests and such are an interference between people and God they seem like they might be likely to be a group you could use. You'll obviously have to research to find out but since no one's definitively given you an answer yet I thought I'd suggest them.

[ffutures]

Quakers - OK, definitely another possibility. Thanks!

[nineveh_uk]

I have been to a Quaker wedding. As legally it has to take place in a normal service this means that the experience is quite strange for someone who hasn't been there before, as it is half an hour of silence with about one minute of vows*, and a couple of minutes of other people feeling moved to speak. They key is that the couple marry themselves - so it only really works if the couple _are_ Quakers. A lay preacher wouldn't work because there isn't a preacher involved at all - you need an entire community of Friends.

*Really. The vows are very, very short. "Friends, I take this my friend, Mark/Julie, to be my husband/wife, promising, through Divine assistance (or with God's help), to be unto him/her a loving and faithful husband/wife, so long as we both on earth shall live." That's it.

[marycatelli]

Well, that is the pith and essence of the vows, which are the pith and essence of the wedding.

In medieval times, you could marry just by saying that without witnesses or anything.