Anniversaries

Tomorrow is my wife and my twenty-eighth wedding anniversary. We were married in an outdoor “hippie” wedding at our then evangelical charismatic Episcopal Church on May 28, 1977. About 250 people attended, as well as the musicians, four priests, four altar boys, and assorted ushers and helpers.

My talented wife made her wedding dress as well as my embroidered wedding shirt (a special long sleeve white shirt to go with my only pair of white pants ever). The flowers included a beautiful ring of daisies crowning my wife’s hair. I haven’t been able to find the pictures but when I do I will let you see her marvelous planning and handiwork.

Our wedding was unique in many ways. Besides being the only wedding in the twentieth century at our church that was outside, it was also a full Eucharist with salvation sermon, which included an altar call that six people responded to. To the day she died, the one thing my mother most remembered about our wedding was that 45 minute sermon. The music was done by our Friday night Prayer and Praise group. The centerpiece song, Morning Has Broken, included an additional verse talking about two becoming one that I wrote just to celebrate our wedding. At least ten years later we were at another wedding and the professional music group performing at that wedding also did Morning Has Broken. What was unusual was that they included my additional verse! I asked them were they had gotten the words and they had no idea, it was just part of the music they had been using for years. They thought it was part of the original song. Life is indeed strange.

Our reception was a pot luck dinner in the church auditorium. It was put on by the Friday Night Prayer and Praise Ministry and we had so much food left over we offered it to anyone who wanted it the next day after the Sunday service because it was the afternoon of our Pentecost picnic. The only complaint came from my family who was heard to complain, “Where’s the booze?” I reminded them that communion had included wine.

One of the other unique elements of our wedding was that we were married after 6 p.m. on Saturday evening. That meant that we were technically married on Pentecost, which was being celebrated the next day. Being a lover of symbolism I appreciated the conjunction of our union beginning on the day that celebrated the union of the Church and the Holy Spirit. I have always felt that our beginning got us off to such a good start that we have been able to overcome any and all difficulties thrown at us in the intervening twenty-eight years. I am a firm believer in good starts.

So, if the Lord so leads, remember us in your prayers tomorrow and maybe God will grant us another twenty-eight years together.

Grace and peace to your day.

6 thoughts on “Anniversaries

  1. Well congratulations! I’m alittle late…doesn’t take much to miss things in the Blogdom! Your wedding does sound about perfect, or atleast as close as it gets in this life! How sweet, I do appreciate the Pentecost thing and I love the altar call; that would make it all the more meaningful. I have not witnessed such a thing since our churches have never done that. Billy Graham Crusade…and way back in the Methodist church some. Are you still Episcopal?
    Did you ever answer your own bonus question? Could you? or point me to it?

  2. Yes, the altar call was a unique moment in our wedding.

    I am no longer Episcopal. You can read about my confrontation with the Episcopal church here.

    My own bonus question? No, but let’s see… What has been your greatest adjustment since becoming “one flesh” with another human being? If not, what is your greatest concern?

    My biggest adjustment is realizing that as a “Knight Errand” to my wife (and I am her white knight) I don’t have to “fix” everything. Sometimes all I need to do is listen, to be a sounding wall for her to talk it out herself without me taking up the gauntlet and trying to solve the problem. That is hard for me as I am an inveterate fixer and with my very strong personality has made it difficult for her to tell me things she needs to just have me listen to. But, I am getting better, as is she in telling me to stand down…

  3. Another late congratulations…and a wedding anniversary date I won’t soon forget, as my daughter got married this very Friday May 27th! The special and personal touches – like your wife sewing her dress and your shirt, and you writing another verse to the song – are what make each wedding special and unique! Blessings, and here’s to another 28 years!

  4. One of the advantages of a non-traditional wedding with unique elements is that people remember it years later. Congratulations Violet on your own daughter’s wedding.

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