This weekend, I have the strange honor of presiding over a wedding. Several months ago, this good friend called me up to tell me some news. I assumed that he probably was announcing his engagement, but then he surprised me with the request to officiate the proceedings. I am thrilled and humbled with the task and approach it prayerfully.
Before accepting this mission, however, I had to do a little legal research. Tennessee statutes require that wedding offiants must be a certain class of public official or, apparently, "ordained." After researching some case law, I learned that the State of Tennessee does not actually assert the authority to determine who is ordained but relies on the tenets of the particular religion or tradition. If your church says you are ordained, you are ordained for Tennessee purposes.
In the Church of Christ, however, this presents an interesting quandary. Customarily, we don't ordain anyone but elders and deacons. Without a clergy/laity distinction, what's a lawyer to do?
Thank Heaven for autonomous congregations. I called up an elder in our church and inquired about the possibility of ordination for wedding purposes. He said, "No problem!"
Being the good lawyer, I drafted a letter for his signature, explaining the theology, describing the purpose and commissioning me for the performance of weddings.
Unfortunately, he couldn't open the attachment, so he drafted his own. Here it is, in its entirety:
"[JRB] is commissioned by the elders of the [GP]congregation to perform weddings and other functions commonly performed by clergy."
That's right! Now, I can get great parking at hospitals and am available for bar mitzvahs! I'm heady with new found power and influence. I'm getting some business cards printed up.
Before accepting this mission, however, I had to do a little legal research. Tennessee statutes require that wedding offiants must be a certain class of public official or, apparently, "ordained." After researching some case law, I learned that the State of Tennessee does not actually assert the authority to determine who is ordained but relies on the tenets of the particular religion or tradition. If your church says you are ordained, you are ordained for Tennessee purposes.
In the Church of Christ, however, this presents an interesting quandary. Customarily, we don't ordain anyone but elders and deacons. Without a clergy/laity distinction, what's a lawyer to do?
Thank Heaven for autonomous congregations. I called up an elder in our church and inquired about the possibility of ordination for wedding purposes. He said, "No problem!"
Being the good lawyer, I drafted a letter for his signature, explaining the theology, describing the purpose and commissioning me for the performance of weddings.
Unfortunately, he couldn't open the attachment, so he drafted his own. Here it is, in its entirety:
"[JRB] is commissioned by the elders of the [GP]congregation to perform weddings and other functions commonly performed by clergy."
That's right! Now, I can get great parking at hospitals and am available for bar mitzvahs! I'm heady with new found power and influence. I'm getting some business cards printed up.
posted by JRB at 10:28 PM
10 Comments:
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So, will someone please remind me why I spent all of that time in Seminary?!?!
Dude, so that you can get paid for your clerginess. I'm just pro bono clergy because I don't have a real license.
Welcome to the clergy! As a cleric, myself, I find the ascetic lifestyle to be the best perk. You get to actually feel good about being in abject poverty, and actually wear it like a badge. Not too proudly, however. That can get you in trouble.
This brings up a whole river of questions: Do we call you Reverend JRB? The Right Rev. JRB? Father Jeff? Pastor Jeff? Will you be making guest appearances on the 700 Club? (ooh, I hope so)
Which title supercedes? Rev. or Esq. or Professor? I guess you could be the Prof. Rev. JRB, Esq., to get around the semantics, but which one will open more doors for you at a crime scene? Does this raise any ethical concerns regarding attorney/clergy/client privilege? Say you were a prosecutor AND a minister, and happened to be driving OJ's white Bronco down the freeway listening to him babble. Would your head explode?
You'd better think twice about this arrangement, I think. The upside is that you can now comment on blogs with a bit more gravitas and authority. And you may get a few Sunday dinners with parishioners out of this, as well as complaints to the eldership about your wife's hemline.
I am traveling to Vegas Thursday for a conference. I hear there are few requirements for this type of work there. I will mail you the papers.
I think that I'm going to go with the Honorable Reverend Professor Baker, Esquire, unless I'm in Faulkner chapel, then replace Professor with Doctor. They dig that for some reason.
Don, I didn't know you were a cleric. What special powers do you have? Did ever get to the final level where you get to fight the troll?
Eddie, man, that's fantastic. I could use my summer breaks totally cashing in as an Elvis Wedding Man in Vegas! I've even lived in Mississippi, and my wife's hemline would be no problem at all in Sin City.
This is bigger than I ever could have imagined.
I can see the neon lights now. "For a Limited Time Only: The Right Reverend Professor, the Notorious Doctor Jeffrey Ryan Baker. Now performing in the Blue Suede Chapel"
Welcome to the priesthood of believers.
You should have known that if they would ordain ME they would ordain anybody.
The Right Reverend Mark Elrod
Next thing you know, clergy will want to start litigating.
What a package deal! You can marry them one day in church, then divorce them in court. (sorry, not funny) But it seems like that's what Americans like.
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