Church Weddings Research Articles

A duplication of marriages? An ethnographic account and assessment of the necessity for both traditional and Christian marriages for African Christians

This article is based on ethnographic research for a doctoral study that was conducted in 2016 among the Ndau people of Chimanimani, Zimbabwe. The article described and assessed the practice of some African Christian churches, especially missionary founded churches, to conduct ‘white church weddings’ after getting married customarily. The study employs a postcolonial approach as a theoretical lens. It argues for a hybridized form of Christian marriage that takes into cognizance the validity of African customary marriages in and for themselves, while at the same time appreciating the importance ascribed to ‘church weddings’ in especially missionary-founded churches. The study uses the case study of the Ndau people, but the phenomenon is widely practised among African Christians across the continent. In the article, doctoral thesis findings were related with Erlank’s (2014) work on marriages in South Africa. The article offered description, critique (postcolonial, gender, class), and suggested interventions. Critical phenomenology was utilized to assess the findings and to expose the power relations that exist in the hierarchical treatment of African customary marriages as of an inferior status compared to church weddings. The economic aspect of the duplication of marriages was also foregrounded. The article underscores the importance of ethnographic research on religion as a human phenomenon in Southern Africa and beyond, as well as a critical assessment of the phenomenon. It provided several possible interventions for African missionary-founded churches.

К истории православной проповеди в Речи Посполитой начала XVII в.: об источниках «Казанья на погребение» (Вильно, 1619) Леонтия Карповича

The author’s Orthodox sermon became widespread in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth only at the turn of the 17th century. The first published sermons on the occasion of church weddings and funerals, as well as the so-called “materia” or thesis plans for the compilations of sermons, belong to this period. The book heritage of the Archimandrite of Vilnius Brotherhood monastery, Leontij Karpovyč (ca. 1580 –1620), is one of the noteworthy examples of combining patristic traditions of exegetic homiletics with imitation of Polish models of thematic preaching. The paper explores the sources of Karpovyč’s funeral homily “Kazanie na pogrzebie” on the occasion of the funeral of Prince V. Golitsyn (pronounced in “prostaya mova”, published in Polish). The study aims to reconstruct the intellectual resource of the sermon on the basis of the given by Karpovyč references and quotations and to outline the main sources of the text, including biblical fragments. This analysis helps to find out the reading circle of Orthodox intellectuals associated with the Vilnius Brotherhood monastery and to identify out the elements of similarity of the sources of their erudition with the curriculum of non-Orthodox educational institutions, as well as the degree to which Orthodox author had mastered the Polish literary tradition.

Traditional Vs Church Wedding in Nigeria: A Call for a Resolution

Africa continues its struggles for identity, for a dignifying peculiarity. The struggles are evident in the political protests, social revolutions, economic tensions, and even cultural transformations across the continent. In the religious parlance, this struggle is tense and controversial. Since the re-emergence of interests and promotion for indigenous spiritualities, Christianity, for one, is being confronted over its place in Africa, over its relevance and contribution to the present state of Africa. A quintessence of this struggle is on the issue of weddings and marriage. There is the traditionalist viewpoint that considers it an ignominy that weddings in Africa have to be done in a church and blessed by a priest for it to be valid and licit. They argue that a church wedding, cynically described as a ‘white wedding’, is another invasion of the Western culture, instrumentalized by the church to the detriment of African identity. If the parents, elders, and communities of the couples have performed the traditional rites of marriage, it should be as valuable as or even more valuable than the church wedding. They want church weddings devalued and rejected. It is either a traditional or church wedding. This thought-line seems acceptable to an increasing number of young people. It appeals to their sense of identity as Africans. Also, it reveals the growing disinterest in Western-orientated Christianity. The church has, on her part, not been effective in communicating her standpoint and in structurally implementing it towards resolving the tension. This article tries to articulate and expose some aspects of this problem. It proffered solutions, urging the church to implement some principles of complementarity, and calling the Catholic Bishops for a resolution on a new rite of marriage. This research is situated mainly within the Igbo region and the Catholic Church in Nigeria.

Protestant Rites and the Problem of Religious Difference in Colonial Korea

Abstract Colonial Korean society was a crucible of ritual conflict and innovation. The confluence of Protestant expansion, Japanese colonization, and cultural nationalism during the early twentieth century brought sweeping changes to Korean ritual life, especially to the all-important Confucian rites of passage. This article examines print media discussions of Protestant rites from the late 1910s to the early 1930s to trace how religious difference emerged as a political problem for Korean cultural nationalists. Early on, Protestant missionaries had banned ancestral veneration and other folk customs while spreading liturgical (marriage and funerary) ceremonies, in an effort to inculcate orthodox doctrines among new believers. Converts’ rejection of indigenous Confucian rites in favor of their own practices, however, soon became the focal point of heated public debates. When Protestants condemned ancestral rites as idolatry, they maligned fellow Koreans as primitive. Meanwhile, the rapid proliferation of Western-style church weddings excessively disseminated religious practices. Above all, cultural nationalists grew alarmed at how faith communities threatened to splinter society, diverting Koreans away from national concerns toward sectarian interests. I argue that Protestant rites prompted nationalist intellectuals to grapple with the sacred and secular, ultimately producing a narrow vision of religion subsumed under the aegis of the nation.

A Portrait as an Identity: An Essay on Belorussian Portrait Painting of the 16th–17th centuries

The article explores the identifying capabilities of the Belarusian (Grand Lithuanian) portrait of the veristic style, which presents exactly physiognomy and sometimes turns the image into a mask, an icon, unlike the traditional European portrait showing the artist’s interpretation of a person’s inner spiritual world. The genesis of the Belarusian portrait as well as the West European portrait is associated with a reconsideration of Roman cultural traditions in the 16th century. The culture of the Italian Renaissance theoretically and practically managed to connect Christianity with the Greek and Roman Antiquity, creating a triune artistic system of artist — work — viewer. For the Grand Duchy of Lithuania the orientation towards the Ancient culture (Ancient Rome) from the 16th century grew into a culture-forming factor. According to the Roman ancient models, the main rituals were arranged, accompanying the birth and baptism of children, church weddings and marriages, table meetings and feasts, exequial and funeral ceremonies; mummification of the departed and arrangement of crypts with sarcophagi of certain aristocratic families were allowed. The ceremonial side of culture was reinforced by the historical mythologization of the origin of the nobility-knighthood from the Roman patricians. In the portrait of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the veristic style was widely used. First of all, such portraits performed identification tasks depicted, and were an important element of everyday culture rather than art. They were displayed in the halls of family portrait galleries in magnates’ palaces, as well as in the modest houses of middle and small gentry, thery were set up in temples, used in funeral ceremonies as coffin portraits attached to a coffin end wall. During the 16th –17th centuries this tradition influenced the development of the complex composition of a portrait containing attributes of different kind of a character’s social status. The purposes of identification and communication were to correlate the relationship in the portraits of the image and space, representing a system of signs and code formulas, the understanding of which organized a two-level communication identification — the author of the portrait with the depicted face, the viewer with a portrait work.

Ethical issues in denial of church wedding based on couple\u2019s hemoglobin genotype in Enugu, south eastern Nigeria

BackgroundSickle cell anemia (SCA) is a major genetic disease with the greatest burden in sub-Saharan Africa. To try to help reduce this burden, some churches in Nigeria conduct premarital sickle cell hemoglobin screening and refuse to conduct weddings when both individuals are identified as carriers of sickle cell trait.Main bodyThis paper explores the ethical challenges involved in such denials. We assess whether churches have the right to decline to marry adults who understand the risks and still prefer to get married, and whether couples should be denied church weddings based on the risk that their child may suffer from sickle cell anemia. We examine the moral and ethical dimensions of such denials and explore the underlying socio-cultural context involving the purpose of marriage and the meaning of the wedding ceremony in societies where premarital screening is one of the few tools available to reduce the risk of having children with SCA. The potential role of the church is also examined against the background of church beliefs, the duty of the church to its members and its role in reducing the suffering of its members and /or their children.ConclusionWe argue that the church should impose these burdens on couples only if doing so promotes a sufficiently compelling goal and there is no less burdensome way to achieve it. We then argue that the goal of reducing the number of individuals in Nigeria who have SCA is compelling. However, testing earlier in life offers a less burdensome and potentially even more effective means of achieving this goal. This suggests that, advocating for earlier screening and helping to support these programs, would likely better promote the church’s own goals of helping its parishioners, increasing the number of church weddings, and reducing the burden of SCA in Nigeria.

Marriage, its forms and special features of the Bolgarians' prenuptial communication in Odessa region during the Soviet period

In the following article marriage is discussed as a form of social relationships among the Bolgarians in Odessa region while public affairs transition from androcentric society to civil law relations.The role of economic aspect is defined in procedures of entering into marriage during XX century. The portrait of "ideal" partner is described according to traditional society's demands and also its changes are mentioned under the challenge of that time. Transformations in prenuptial communication in the second half of XX century are recorded together with the Bolgarians' attitude to the institution of marriage in general. The author makes a conclusion as for changes in the institution of marriage and its semantic issues. Although, before the Soviet regime marriage was seen as a stable economic position in androcentric culture of Bulgarian village, during the second half of XX century wedlock was being perceived as a spiritual union by the general public. Prenuptial communication was getting open for young people and it caused contraventions of main prohibited cultural traditions. Moreover, forms of marriage got changed, too. During the second half of XX century the main form to get married remained as a complex of wedding rituals widespread but transformed for that time. However, most wedding rituals kept their original forms such as church weddings, regenerated only after the Soviet Union's collapse while forming independent Ukraine, and marriage registration.

Homosexuality, the holy family and a failed mass wedding in Catholic Northern Uganda

Christian churches have played crucial but diverse roles in public debates over homosexuality in Africa. In contrast to the vocal and explicit homophobia witnessed in many Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches (PCCs), homosexuality has until recently been an overwhelmingly silenced issue in the Acholi region of Northern Uganda, and an almost complete non-issue in the local Catholic Church. This article suggests that while this silence in part relates to the temporal proximity of the Northern Ugandan war, the absence of LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) activism in the region, and the hesitance of mainline churches to talk about sex, it is also embedded in what are considered to be customary Acholi understandings of sexuality. Offering an analysis of Acholi Catholic teaching on peace and the family, the article suggests that Catholicism has entrenched heteronormative patriarchy in Acholi society. However, as illustrated by the unpopularity of church weddings, the norms that govern sexuality are negotiated in the dynamic space between religion and what are contemporarily understood as ‘modern’ and ‘customary’ Acholi moral sensibilities. The article emphasizes the need for scholarship on religion and homosexuality to extend beyond PCCs and capital cities, and beyond the most explicit forms of public homophobia in Africa.

Recognition of Minority Denominations in Denmark: Negotiations in Religion, Identity and Judicial Process

The Constitution of Denmark of 1849 establishes the Evangelical Lutheran Church as the Church of Denmark, which “shall as such be supported by the State.” A handful of other denominations enjoyed recognition by royal decree until this practice was ended in 1970 with the new Marriage Act which allowed church weddings with civil validity to take place not only in the Church of Denmark but also in recognized denominations and other religious communities that obtain authorization from the Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs. In 1998 an expert committee was established to advise the Minister on applications for denominational recognition. The committee consisted of myself, a historian of religions and chairman, sociologist of religion Ole Riis, later replaced by Margit Warburg, Church historian Jørgen Stenbæk, later replaced by Per Ingesman and professor of law Eva Smith, later replaced by Jens Elo Rytter. In the fall of 2007, a cabinet reorganization in the Liberal-Conservative Government led to a reorganization of the legal body responsible for the recognition of minority denominations. Thus the judicial process, including the expert committee, was transferred to the Department of Justice under the Section of Family Affairs. Since 2014, jurisdiction is under the Ministry of Child, Equality, Integration and Social Affairs, Permanent Under-Secretarial Department, Office of Family Affairs. This paper will describe the judicial and pragmatic aspects of our deliberations. Furthermore, a few key cases will be described which demonstrate how the recognition process sometimes influences the negotiation of religious identity among applicant denominations.

The White Wedding: Affect and Economy in South Africa in the Early Twentieth Century

Abstract:Discussions of church weddings are not standard in accounts of African marriage in South Africa in the early twentieth century. However, from the 1890s onward, church weddings were becoming more common, and by the 1930s more Africans married in church than elsewhere. Indeed, these wedding ceremonies provide insight into how black families experienced and created their own social status in a context in which white South Africans viewed black weddings as a symbol of racial misappropriation. Via weddings and their associated commodification, families held on to and proclaimed the value of family life, and importantly, broader social networks as well as status-based associational life in an era of familial disintegration. At the same time weddings were often a double-edged indicator of status through their reference to sexual purity by means of white frocks.

Love and Marriage in the Norwich Heresy Trials, 1428–1431

Twenty-nine of the heresy trials conducted between 1428 and 1431 by Bishop William Alnwick of Norwich involved charges that defendants had maintained heterodox positions about the sacrament of marriage; these trials comprise a significant archive for historians of marriage and love, in addition to historians of heresy. Defendants in Norwich were accused of denying the need for the exchange of spoken consent between the spouses, as well as the need for church weddings, but these were not the only reasons these defendants were perceived as threatening to church and society. Church officials may also have been concerned to rebut what they saw as the radical implications of their defendants’ views about consent and love. By setting these cases against the background of late medieval perspectives on consent, love, and marital affection, this article argues that the Norwich defendants’ claims reinforced inquisitors’ fears concerning the incursion into England of continental heresies.

Garden@Wedding: Tilting the Balance of the Concept of Garden Weddings in Contemporary Kenya

In an age when Church buildings are increasingly being less preferred by many Christians for ceremonies in favour of outdoor open spaces, there is need to resituate the Church’s position on the importance of Church buildings. In the case of the wedding ceremony, there is need to re-think the biblical reasons that Christians are using to prefer the so called garden weddings over Church weddings. In as much as this paper does not seek to ‘criminalize’ the practice of garden weddings based on biblical or theological reasons, this paper argues that the proliferation of the industry of the present day garden weddings is more driven by secular and commercial reasons, including nature worship rather than those biblical or theological.

Widor: A Life beyond the Toccata (review)

Widor: A Life beyond the Toccata. By John R. Near. (Eastman Studies in Music.) Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2011. [xxiv, 588 p. ISBN 9781580463690. $90.] Illustrations, lists of works, bibliography, index. Although familiar to many organists for his lifelong devotion to their instrument as composer, performer, teacher, and coeditor (with his pupil Albert Schweitzer) of an edition of Bach's organ works, Charles- Marie Widor (1844-1937), if known at all by the wider musical public, is most likely to be remembered for a single work frequently heard at church weddings and sharing with J. S. Bach's D-Minor Toccata and Fugue the distinction of being the most oft-recorded organ piece: the flashy Toccata that closes the fifth of his ten organ symphonies. While some of the organ symphonies, or at least selected movements from them, have in recent decades appeared on recitals and discs, very little of Widor's substantial output for other media has been revived. As its title implies, John Near's Widor: A Life Beyond the Toccata seeks to increase awareness and appreciation of a figure who, as the author asserts in his prefatory remarks, was not at all just an organist and organ composer, but rather a mainstream musician who composed in nearly every genre, and who had been a sort of cultural ambassador for France (pp. xvii-xviii). Indeed, it is surprising that work toward a more complete picture of so major a figure in the musical cultural life of France's Third Republic should have only been begun during the three decades past and, furthermore, that the initiative has been taken by English-speaking rather than French scholars. came Near's groundbreaking 1985 doctoral dissertation at Boston University (The Life and Works of Charles- Marie Widor), followed two years later by an insightful monograph, The Life and Times of Charles-Marie Widor, 1844-1937 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), then by British freelance writer Andrew Thomson, who also contributed several essays on Widor and his contemporaries to The Musi - cal Times and co-authored the New Grove entry on him. Professor Near too continued championing and exploring his life and works through preparation and publication of an excellent critical edition of the ten organ symphonies between 1987-97 and by gaining access to a substantial stash of Widoriana stowed away in the home of the composer's grandniece. Those materials, particularly a 103-page unpublished manuscript, Souvenirs autobiographiques, that the ninety-one-year-old Widor dictated to Claude Monet's cousin, plus other writings by the composer and by pupils, friends, and critics, have enabled Near to produce a biography in which the narrative voice is often that of Widor or his contemporaries. In addition to nearly 500 pages of main text and notes, Near's book contains several informative appendices, including a 44-page work list-certainly the most comprehensive assembled thus far-that chronologically itemizes and annotates the vocal, keyboard, chamber, orchestral and theatre works produced by Widor over his long and prolific compositional career. The most notable of these are covered in three main chapters, which also chronicle his parallel and arguably more important accomplishments as organ virtuoso, Paris Conservatory professor, major figure in France's Bach revival, and prolific author of music criticism, articles, prefaces and textbooks. Thus, the first of these chapters, First Creative Period (1864-79), not only discusses the first six organ symphonies and various vocal and instrumental works but also recounts the valuable support and inspiration Widor received from the successful and influential Parisian organ builder Cavaille-Coll, who during their lifelong friendship promoted his protege as recitalist on his new and restored organs and secured his appointment as organiste titulaire of the prominent Parisian church of Saint- Sulpice. …

The Significance of Glossolalia in the Apostolic Faith Mission, Zimbabwe

This study seeks to look at the meaning and significance of Glossolalia 1 in the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe. 2 This paper has also been influenced by debates surrounding speaking in tongues in most of the Pentecostal churches in general and the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe in particular. It was the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) that brought Pentecostalism to Zimbabwe. 3 The paper situates the phenomenon of glossolalia in the Zimbabwean socio-economic, spiritual, and cultural understanding. The Pentecostal teachings on the meaning and significance of speaking in tongues have caused a stir in psychological, linguistics, sociological, anthropological, ethnographical, philological, cultural, and philosophical debates. Yet those in the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe argue that their concept of glossolalia is biblically rooted. Surprisingly non-glossolalist Christians also use the Bible to dismiss the pneumatic claims by Pentecostals. The emphasis on speaking in tongues in the AFM has rendered Zimbabwean ‘mainline’ churches like Anglicans, Catholics and Methodists as meaningless. This is the same with African Indigenous Churches which have also been painted with ‘fault-lines’, giving an upper hand to AFM in adding up to its ballooning number of followers. This is as a result of their restorationist perspective influenced by the history of the Pentecostal Churches that views all non-Pentecostal churches as having fallen from God's intentions through compromise and sin. The AFM just like other Pentecostal churches in Zimbabwe exhibit an aggressive assault and intolerance toward certain aspects of the African culture, which they label as tradition, 4 for example, traditional customs, like paying homage to ancestral spirits (Kurova Guva or bringing back the spirit of the dead ceremony), and marriage customs (polygamy, kusungira or sanctification of the first born ritual). The movement has managed to rid itself of the dominance of the male adults and the floodgates were opened to young men and women, who are the victims of traditional patriarchy. Besides glossolalia being one of the pillars of AFM doctrines, the following also bear some importance: personal testimonies, tithing, church weddings, signs/miracles, evangelism and prosperity theology.

To Have and to Hold: Marrying and Its Documentation in Western Christendom, 400–1600 (review)

Reviewed by: To Have and to Hold: Marrying and Its Documentation in Western Christendom, 400–1600 Stuart A. Morgan To Have and to Hold: Marrying and Its Documentation in Western Christendom, 400–1600. Edited by Philip L. ReynoldsJohn Witte, Jr. (New York: Cambridge University Press. 2007. Pp. xvi, 519. $88.00. ISBN 978-0-521-86736-8.) The volume studies “premodern” European marriage documents, analyzing the function of these documents and what they reveal about marriage. The collection of essays is marked by its breadth. Liturgical material, “marriage contracts,” and church court records are discussed. It takes the reader from the later Roman Empire to John Calvin’s Geneva, and from Iceland to North Africa. Scholars from a wide range of disciplines contribute, and they often interact with each other’s material. Most chapters end with translated documentary appendices that allow the reader to look at much of the material on which the individual studies are based. This will be particularly helpful to students wanting to understand the primary material. The study opens with a clear introduction to the subject. Reynolds sketches out the process by which consent alone made a marriage and the extent to which the clergy were involved in marriages. He also gives a brief history of “dotation” and surveys the types of documents that are discussed in this anthology. The chapter on later Roman law is particularly useful, given the regular references to Roman law in the rest of the volume. Other themes that are discussed throughout the volume include degrees of separation, concubinage, consent, the role of the paterfamilias, betrothal, and dotation. Some marriage documents had a more religious and ideological function than others. David G. Hunter’s work on Roman North Africa demonstrates that there was nothing to distinguish a Christian from a pagan marriage, but that Augustine used tabulae matrimoniales as moral indicators to advance his definition of sex and marriage. Philip Reynolds’s chapter on Frankish dotal charters focuses on their theology, which is not distinctively Augustinian. Sacramental language appears clearly in the five dower charters from Laon and Soissons, which are the focus of Laurent Morelle’s chapter; he also finds in them “a new maturity and depth in the pastoral message about marriage” (p. 177). Morelle argues that the bishop’s chancery monopolized production of these charters and used them to proclaim the Church’s teaching about marriage in opposition to antimatrimonial heresies circulating at the time. In contrast, Cynthia Johnson does not think that the documents she studies served a didactic purpose. The marriage agreements in question were concerned with properties given on the occasion of marriage. In a very convincing chapter Richard Helmholz compares secular and spiritual marriage contracts and demonstrates the importance of the family in the choice of a marriage partner. This is a striking theme of the volume, and it stands out particularly strongly in the chapters on Florence, Geneva, and Iceland. Local variation is another significant theme. Frederik Pedersen’s study of lay and ecclesiastical court shows the laity engaging opportunistically with [End Page 91] the courts. The chapters on Ireland and Iceland depict the slow advance of canon law in Gaelic Ireland and Iceland and the presence of local variation. The volume ends with a study of the topic in Reformation Geneva. The chapter demonstrates continuity and change. Church weddings became essential for marriage, interestingly as they would with the Council of Trent in 1563. Given that references to Trent run throughout, it is a pity that a chapter is not devoted to it. In general, the anthology has been thoughtfully compiled, and chapters follow each other in logical progression. Authors often mention other chapters to highlight common themes, continuity, and divergence, which give the book coherence and helps readers appreciate the bigger picture. Stuart A. Morgan University College, London Copyright © 2009 The Catholic University of America Press

Blessing same-sex unions: the perils of queer romance and the confusions of Christian marriage

At most church weddings, the person presiding over the ritual is not a priest or a pastor, but the wedding planner, followed by the photographer, the florist, and the caterer. And in this day and age, more wedding theology is supplied by Modern Bride magazine or reality television than by any of the Christian treatises on holy matrimony. Indeed, church weddings have strayed long and far from distinctly Christian aspirations. The costumes and gestures might still be right, but the intentions are hardly religious. Why then, asks noted gay commentator Mark D. Jordan, are so many churches vehemently opposed to blessing same-sex unions? In this incisive work, Jordan shows how carefully selected ideals of Christian marriage have come to dominate recent debates over same-sex unions. Opponents of gay marriage, he reveals, too often confuse simplified ideals of matrimony with historical facts. They suppose, for instance, that there has been a stable Christian tradition of marriage across millennia, when in reality Christians have quarreled among themselves for centuries about even the most basic elements of marital theology, authorizing experiments like polygamy and divorce. Jordan also argues that no matter what the courts do, Christian churches will have to decide for themselves whether to bless same-sex unions. No civil compromise can settle the religious questions surrounding gay marriage. And queer Christians, he contends, will have to discover for themselves what they really want out of marriage. If they are not just after legal recognition as a couple or a place at the social table, do they really seek the blessing of God? Or just the garish melodrama of a white wedding? Posing trenchant questions such as these, Blessing Same-Sex Unions will be a must-read for both sides of the debate over gay marriage in America today.

From mandatory to voluntary testing: Balancing human rights, religious and cultural values, and HIV/AIDS prevention in Ghana

This paper examines efforts by some churches in Ghana to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS. The analysis is based on focus group discussions with two groups of men and two groups of women, along with in-depth interviews with 13 pastors and marriage counsellors in the churches studied. In response to government and public criticisms about human rights violations, churches that previously imposed mandatory HIV testing on members planning to marry now have voluntary testing programmes. However, the results suggest that what the churches refer to as voluntary testing may not be truly voluntary. Cultural values and traditional practices, including traditional courtship and marriage rites (which are performed before church weddings), not only clash with considerations about pre-marital HIV testing but also complicate the contentious issue of confidentiality of information on HIV testing. Associated with these complexities and issues of confidentiality is a reluctance among participants, particularly those from northern Ghana, to test for HIV. The results reveal how broader social impacts of HIV testing for those planning to marry may extend beyond individuals or couples in different cultural contexts. The findings also support the general view that there are no perfect or easy solutions to combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Practical solutions and programs for Ghana cannot be neutral to cultural values and need to be tailored for particular (ethnic) populations.

„Traumhochzeit“, oder: „gemeinsam vor Gott treten“?: Theologische Orientierung und religiöse Lebensdeutung in der kirchlichen Trauung im Kontext der Mediengesellschaft

Beginning with the discussion of whether marriage is to be seen as rite of passage or as mere act of blessing, homiletical and liturgical issues in church weddings are considered. Historical aspects of wedding liturgies (especially Martin Luther's “Traubüchlein”) are reconsidered. In the church, marriage is to be based on the metaphorical analogy between the ecclesiological relation of Christ and the church and the matrimonial relation between man and woman (Eph. 5:21ff). There is evidence, then, for an understanding of matrimony itself as blessing, which is to be symbolized in wedding ritual. Wedding, as initiation into this special status of blessing, has to be regarded as a liturgical set: both a separation from parental ties and an empowerment for blessed partnership. While media patterns of “dream-wedding” form the actual reception of marriage, church wedding gains its meaning as “Gegenspiel” (“counterplay”) that communicates the liberating idea of marriage and matrimony in biblical symbols of freedom and care.

The wedding act in Serbia in the light of social changes: A study of traditional and contemporary ceremony

Traditional form of getting married included wedding ceremony in which we had, among other rituals, obligatory church wedding. Church wedding was omitted in certain cases, as it was, for example, marriage of underage partners. When transformation of traditional life begun, church wedding was omitted more often, though it was still norm (in traditional and civilian law). In this period, traditional wedding ceremony was considered as popular way of marking the start of new wedding community. At the end of 19th and beginning of 20th century, the civilian ceremony of getting married was introduced, but most of couples still got married in church. This was custom until The Second World War, when the church form of wedding became undesirable. Communist ideology meant the complete breaking up with religious and national traditions. This brought to the reduction of numbers of church weddings, but not to their complete leaving. Economic crises, war destructions, low life standards and disturbance of system of values, at the end of 20th cent resulted in retraditionalisation processes as for instance, revitalization of church life, or some of it’s elements. Last few years in Serbia, young couples approach both the civilian marriage -because it is an obligation and the church marriage -because of different reasons: need to make continuity with historical heritage, or to invent new one. I will try to show this course of transformation of act of getting married, through analyses of social meaning of some wedding ceremony elements.

Recognizing ourselves: ceremonies of lesbian and gay commitment

In April 1993, as part of March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation, hundreds of couples participated in the Wedding, a symbolic commitment ceremony held in front of Internal Revenue Service building. Part protest and part affirmation of devotion, event was a reminder that marriage rights have become a major issue among lesbians and gay men, who cannot marry legally and can only claim domestic partner rights in a few locations in United States. Yet despite official lack of recognition, same-sex wedding ceremonies have been increasing in frequency over past decade. Ellen Lewin, who has consecrated her own lesbian relationship with a commitment ceremony, decided to explore myriad ways in which lesbians and gay men create meaningful ceremonies for themselves. She offers first comprehensive account of lesbian and gay weddings in modern America. A series of richly detailed profiles-the result of extensive interviews and participation in planning and realization of many of these commitment rituals-is woven together to show how new traditions, and ultimately new families, are emerging within contemporary America. Just as book is a moving portrait of same-sex couples today, it is also a significant political document on a new arena in struggle for lesbian and gay rights. In a larger sense, Lewin's work is about politics surrounding same-sex marriages and ramifications for central dimensions of American culture such as kinship, community, morality, and love. Lewin explores ceremonies themselves, which range from traditional church weddings to Wicca rituals in countryside, with portraits of planning, joys, and anxieties that led up to weddings. She introduces Bob and Mark, a leather fetishist couple who sanctified their love by legally changing their last names and exchanging vows in tuxedos, leather bow ties, and knee-high police boots. In an equally absorbing profile, Lewin describes Khadija, from a working-class black family deeply suspicious of whites (and especially Jews) and Shulamith, raised in a Zionist household. She tells of how two women struggled to reconcile their widely disparate upbringings and how they ultimately combined elements of African and Jewish traditions in their wedding. These, among many other stories, make Recognizing Ourselves a vivid tapestry of lesbian and gay life in post-Stonewall United States.