Christian Wedding Service

Definition and Meaning

A Christian wedding service is a worship service in which the bride and groom vow before God and the congregation to become husband and wife, and in which the church recognizes and blesses their marriage. It is also called a marriage ceremony or wedding. Unlike an ordinary wedding, it includes hymns, prayer, Scripture reading, and the preaching of the Word. Its distinguishing feature is that the entire ceremony is understood as an act of worship.

Biblical and Historical Background

The church cites Genesis 2:24 as the foundation of marriage: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." It also appeals to Matthew 19:4-6, where this verse is quoted. Other passages cited include the account of Jesus attending the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11) and, frequently, Ephesians 5:22-33, which compares the relationship between husband and wife to that between Christ and the church.

The Catholic Church regards marriage as one of the seven sacraments. After the Reformation, Protestants limited the sacraments directly instituted by Christ to two: baptism and the Lord's Supper. Protestants therefore do not count marriage among the sacraments but honor it as part of the order God established at creation. The Anglican Church of Korea observes marriage as an important rite of the church and has a tradition of understanding it as a rite of sacramental character.

Practice in the Korean Church

In Korea, the church wedding was introduced by missionaries during the period of modernization in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is believed to have contributed to the spread of the "new-style wedding," as distinguished from the traditional Korean wedding.

The typical order of service is as follows:

• Call to worship and singing from the hymnal
• Prayer and Scripture reading
• Officiant's sermon (wedding address)
• Marriage vows and exchange of rings
• Pronouncement of marriage
• Wedding song
• Benediction

The service is usually officiated by a pastor. Many weddings take place in a church sanctuary, but it is also common for a ceremony to be held in a commercial wedding hall in the form of a worship service with a pastor officiating. Many denominations, including Presbyterian and Methodist churches, specify the order of the wedding service and the qualifications of officiants in the worship provisions of their church constitutions or in their books of worship.

Standards regarding whom a pastor may marry differ by denomination and congregation. For example, denominations and churches differ on whether to officiate the marriage of a believer to an unbeliever or the remarriage of a divorced person (see Divorce and Remarriage). The constitutions of the major Korean denominations generally define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.