Can you get a blessing during a civil ceramony?

Miss_Leela

My partner was previously married and our only option is a civil ceramony. We have talked about getting married and spoken about different locations ect... but I just have this thing where I would like a blessing from a priest at the ceramony, I guess Ive always dreamed of a church wedding and didnt consider another type until now. Do you think it is down to the individual priest themselves or is there a religious law stating that a second marragie should not be reconised by the curch full stop?

Thanks

donegal_man

In the C of I you will can have a church wedding if your partner has only been divorced once, if you want a blessing because of more than one previous marriage then I'm pretty sure you will have to be referred to the bishop but there is no dispensation for a church wedding service
If you are talking RC then afaik if your partner was validly married by any faith or legal authority then they will have to get their marriage annulled by the Church before there can be a blessing of your new marriage
Hope this is of some help and good luck to you both

I don't know much about these things, but what I do know is that my bro in law got married in June in a civil ceremony and the registrar checked to ensure that there were no religious readings being read out during the ceremony as they were not allowed. Now that could have been some weird registrar, but when checking about the blessing, also check about mixing religious into civil, if you get me.

Miss_Leela

I should have given more info :rolleyes: We are both RC, he was married once for only 2yrs, I was not. As far as im aware, and I must try and find out, you can only have the marraige anulled for certain reasons ie being unfaithful before/during the marraige or if entering into the marraige without knowing certain things.
But thanks for your replys, gives me more to think about and more questions..

ResearchWill

Miss_Leela wrote: »

I should have given more info :rolleyes: We are both RC, he was married once for only 2yrs, I was not. As far as im aware, and I must try and find out, you can only have the marraige anulled for certain reasons ie being unfaithful before/during the marraige or if entering into the marraige without knowing certain things.
But thanks for your replys, gives me more to think about and more questions..

I assume your partner is now divorced, if he is and the heart is set on church wedding he can consider a Church Annulment, info here http://www.corkandross.org/html/sacraments/marriage/annulments.jsp it deals with Cork and Ross but I assume same all over.

A friend got married civil ceremony recently and no religious readings etc. so may be a problem with religious blessing.

Senna

You cant have anything religious at a civil ceremony being officiated by a registrar. But i have been to one civil ceremony were the registrar finished the ceremony and said she would leave (in a nice pre-organised way) before a family member said a prayer.
So you could have a religious aspect once the registrar is finished, but you need to contact the church to get an annulment if you want a priest to do a blessing.

holding

Absolutely. It's only while the civil ceremony is taking place, and the registrar is present in the room, that the no-religious-stuff thing holds. That all takes 20 minutes or so, and once the registrar has left you can have whatever you like happen in the room, religious or whatever. You can hold a full Mass if you want! Just as long as the civil ceremony bit is definitely finished, and the registrar has left - that's their policy.

Dolbert

Have you considered the Unitarian Church?

Sleepy

You could look at the Unitarians. They're more open to marrying those who've been married before and while not strictly an RCC wedding, it would allow you to have a fully legal Christian ceremony...

I think a few posters from this forum have used them in the past.

http://www.unitarianchurchdublin.org/weddings.htm

Their Preachers are listed in the official HSE document too if you needed contact details for them:

http://www.groireland.ie/solemniser.xls

EDIT: Dolbert beat me to it!

eyescreamcone

We had a unitarian reverand officiate at our wedding.
Very professional.
They put in or leave out anything that the couple wish.
It made it very personal for us.

Also, they have a beautiful church on Stephens Green.

They will also officiate at hotels.
We had ours in a small chapel on the grounds of a hotel.

Our reason for going Unitarian is that we wanted no mention of gods during the service but thought that the civil ceremony was too cold.

The Unitarians are very inclusive and welcome everybody.
Divorcees, gays, non traditional believers etc.
Not for everybody but perfect for us.

eyescreamcone

Also we had a preference for a woman solemniser and they were able to accomodate that also.

ABajaninCork

I think Methodists will also allow divorcees to marry in church. Plenty of options there for you OP.

If you want to wait, then an annulment is possible. Friend of mine at home went through one. But be warned!! It's a VERY long process with paperwork going to and from Rome. It took my friend 5 years to get her annulment. Good job her new hubby's a patient man! She married in a CP then had a full Catholic wedding abroad.