Wedding Ceremony

Wedding Ceremony of Clark Smith and Susie Mayer-Smith,
Sonoma Valley, CA,
9/8/01
By Kevin Sullivan

------------------------------------------------------

Pastor Rich, Thank you for opening this lovely venue to us on this glorious day, and thank you for sharing your insightful remarks on the significance of marriage and community.

To the friends, the family, the joined community of Clark and Susie, Welcome! We have been given a present. It is THIS moment we call, "the present" and in this Present we have the opportunity to make a memory, a shared lasting moment.

We stand here perched between the past and the future, embracing this moment and letting it fill our awareness.

YOU have been called here and YOU HAVE ANSWERED that call. You have been called here because SOMETHING is going to happen, it is ALREADY happening, and it WILL make a difference in your lives, a CHANGE, requested by Clark and Susie. You have been called to Witness, and to Acknowledge, an acknowledgement that Susie and Clark have chosen to Marry their lives, their hearts, and their Paths forward together.

You have been Called to a CELEBRATION, a celebration of THIS moment and a celebration of the joy two people can find in and with each other. You have been CALLED to pledge your support of this union.

The Call was in the past. Today we witness and celebrate. And from this moment on we support.

We ARE our words and our actions. Our words inform and our actions fulfill. Today, Clark and Susie will speak their words of intention, commitment, and trust in front of us, for US to witness.

I now ask you to stand, and with your words and actions let them know that their call has been heard. (everyone stands) With your arms spread wide embracing THIS moment and with one loud clap, say after me, WE WITNESS With your arms spread wide embracing THIS moment and with one loud clap, say after me, WE ACKNOWLEDGE With your arms spread wide embracing THIS moment and with one loud clap, say after me, WE CELEBRATE. (Be seated)

Clark and Susie, Your Call HAS been Heard!

I say to each of you, now and in your own words.... Marriage is the most important and challenging of human relationships. YET, when the STRENGTHS and WILLS of two people are so joined, they manifest possibilities GREATER than each alone ever could; possibilities that place NEW demands on the strength and GENEROSITY of each partner.

You have met and you stand here as equals, but you are NOT IDENTICAL, and you have traveled different paths to this time and place.

Susie, looking back you have put aside the life in France you loved. You have created a distance from your friends and your profession that will be hard to replace. You welcome Clark's strength, honesty, toughness, energy, and his great willingness to risk himself in the search for truth. He is your brilliant, shining cannonball! You bring to him your ability to LISTEN, to SENSE, to GUIDE, to PACE, and to FEEL the texture and nuance of each moment.

Clark, who could have known, that your would ever find a soul mate, as compatible with YOU as Susie! In Susie, you have discovered an Extraordinary DEPTH and COMPASSION, a person with the INNER strength and COURAGE to match your own. WITH Susie, you feel the wellness of mind, body, and SPIRIT that make you completely alive in this moment, THIS PRESENT.

Together, you find joy and laughter in the times you share. Soul mate Surprised by joy Unexpected Feeling the Synergy, Together.

You have come TOGETHER to tell US that you will laugh and struggle, TOGETHER, bound by love and commitment to EACH OTHER and to walking, sharing these TOO brief moments of life along a common path.

You are both STRONG Willed, HOT HEADED!, and PASSIONATE, in your commitments. You WILL struggle with each other and TOGETHER and TOGETHER you WILL learn. From each other, teach each other, FORGIVE each other.

You have chosen a path that you FEEL will be more FULL, more VIBRANT, more ALIVE, and more INTEGRATED than either of you could find in solitude.

MARRY your fortunes, your lives, your paths together!

It is NOT the point of marriage to remove all boundaries. Each honors and protects the other's personal domain. Between even the closest man and woman infinite distances exist. When you can REJOICE in these distances, and CHERISH the expanse which grants perspective, you will see each other MORE clearly, and you can build TOGETHER a lifetime of fellowship, intimacy, and PLAY!

To do this you MUST be: Emotionally present (there's that word again!) and available! You must communicate WITHIN vulnerability, and you must SHARE responsibility, not 50-50 but 100% and 100%. You must do this invoking God's presence and cultivating an appreciation for the divine paradox in which we live.

The MISSION in life, you have CHOSEN, is to SAVOR the gift of the Present, of life at each moment, in full view of its inevitable tragic endings with PASSION, with TRANQUILITY, with HUMOR, with INSIGHT, and with GENEROSITY.

---------------

(Reading from Corinthians....but the greatest of these is love)

---------------

Clark, Take this ring, and placing it on Susie's hand Repeat After Me... I, Clark, take you Susie before God our family and our friends here today to be my wife. You can count on me, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to be guardian of your well-being, protector of your personal domain, a wellspring of forgiveness, and a stand for your word. I promise to preserve a clearing for our spiritual life and to honor your place as my wife, as long as we both shall live.

Susie Take this ring, and placing it on Clark's hand Repeat After Me... I, Susie, take you Clark before God our family and our friends here today to be my husband. You can count on me, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to be guardian of your well-being, protector of your personal domain, a wellspring of forgiveness, and a stand for your word. I promise to preserve a clearing for our spiritual life and to honor your place as my husband, as long as we both shall live.

--------------------------------------------------

At this time, Clark and Susie ask you to stand together with them in SUPPORT of their union.

In the Jewish tradition a cup is shared to represent community. Christ requested that we come together and share wine in remembrance of him.

Please come forward, gather around the altar, and in community, share a cup from the NEW Harvest as a token of your support for their union. After you share the cup, please remain at the front.

-----------------------------------------------------

(prayer by Jean Paul in French and in English)

-----------------------------------------------------

Before this community of family and friends, and by the power vested in me by the state of California, I pronounce you husband and wife.

You may kiss the HUSBAND.

It is my pleasure to PRESENT to you for the first time, Clark Robert Smith and Susie Marie Mayer-Smith.