Larry and Ed

Ceremony

Justice of the Peace:

We are gathered here to celebrate your joining in love and Holy Union. This is a special moment in the development of your love. Having found one another and established your relationship, you are here to sanctify it and give it special significance.

This service is not magic. It will not create a relationship that does not already exist. It is a time for tying a knot in the rope of days and saying, “We will not slip backwards from here, but will go forward together.”

It is a time for declaring vows and intentions, and for facing the uncertainties of the future with one thing of which you are certain; your love for one another and your desire for that love to last forever.

Statement of Intent

Justice of the Peace:

Larry and Ed, I invite you now to state publicly your resolution to live with one another in love.

Larry, will you endeavor with all that is within you to be faithful to the ideal of love? Will you love and forgive as freely and unconditionally as God loves and forgives you? Will you forsake all others and love faithfully so long as you both shall live?

Larry:

I Will.

Justice of the Peace:

Ed, will you endeavor with all that is within you to be faithful to the ideal of love? Will you love and forgive as freely and unconditionally as God loves and forgives you? Will you forsake all others and love faithfully so long as you both shall live?

Ed:

I Will.

Exchange of Vows

Justice of the Peace:

Since you have both stated your intentions to live together in love, I invite you to turn and make your vows to one another.

Larry, take Ed’s hand and repeat this vow to him after me:

I Larry Sogolow take you, Edward Popowski, to be my partner in life. I will cherish our friendship and love today, tomorrow, and forever. I will trust you and honor you. I will love you faithfully through the best and the worst; through the difficult and the easy. Whatever may come, I will always be there. As I have given you my hand to hold, so I give you my life to keep.

Justice of the Peace:

Ed, take Larry’s hand and repeat this vow to him after me:

I Edward Popowski take you, Larry Sogolow to be my partner in life. I will cherish our friendship and love today, tomorrow, and forever. I will trust you and honor you. I will love you faithfully through the best and the worst; through the difficult and the easy. Whatever may come, I will always be there. As I have given you my hand to hold, so I give you my life to keep.

Exchange of Rings

Justice of the Peace:

Throughout the ages, people have exchanged property as a sign of a covenant between them. In ancient times monarchs would give their ring to one who represented them and upon seeing the monarch’s ring all would know that a special relationship existed.

For many years, rings have served as symbols of a loving relationship. Now Larry and Ed come to exchange rings. As often as you see these rings upon your fingers may you remember the vows you made today, and may you renew your determination to make your love last and your relationship grow.

Ring Vows

Larry:

With this ring I encircle you with my love. I present it as a symbol of my constant faith and abiding love. With this ring I pledge my love to you and give you my heart.

Ed:

With this ring I encircle you with my love. I present it as a symbol of my constant faith and abiding love. With this ring I pledge my love to you and give you my heart.

The Pronouncement

Justice of the Peace:

Listen to the scriptures. This is a passage that is often quoted at weddings, but usually they don’t note that two people of the same sex speak these words. Listen to the words, which Ruth spoke to Naomi. May these words go with you and be yours forever:

And Ruth said to her: “Entreat me not to leave you, or to return from following after you: For whither thou goest I will go and whither thou lodgest I will lodge; and your people will be my people and your God my God. And where you die I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts thee from me.” (Ruth 2:16-17)

In as much as you have presented yourselves here and exchanged vows and rings as the symbols of your relationship; by the power that is vested in me by the residents of Chester, the State of Vermont, and by the power of your love, I do proclaim that you are partners for life.