The Service
ORDER OF SERVICEOpening Prayer
Fernanda and Keith, the church takes part in your happiness and welcomes you with a magnanimous heart,as well as your family and friends,on the day that you are building between you a committement for the whole of your lives for the believers, God is the fountain of love and fidelity because God is love let us, therefore, listen carefully to His word,and let us humbly beg Him to give you all your heart desires and make reality all your goals
First Reading
From the Book of Genesis 1, 26-28.31a
Then said, 'Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them , and God said to them, 'be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the hearth. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.
This is the word of the Lord.
Responsorial Psalm PS128
R: O blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways
O blessed are those who fear the Lord
And walk in his ways!
By the labour of your hands you shall eat.
You will be happy and prosper
Your wife like a fruitful vine
In the heart of your house;
Your children like shoots of the olive,
Around your table.
Indeed thus shall be blessed the man who fears the Lord.
May the Lord bless you from Zion
All the days of your life!
and may you live to see your children's children.
Second Reading
The Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians
5, 2a 25-32
Live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind' yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, because we are members of this body. 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church.
This is the word of the Lord.
Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia
Gospel
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
15, 9-12
Jesus said to his disciples: 'As the father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
'This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you'
This is the Gospel of the Lord
Rite of Marriage
Fernanda and Keith you have come together in this church so that the Lord may seal and strengthen your love in the presence of the Church's minister and this community.
Christ abundantly blesses this love. He has already consecrated you in baptism and now he enriches and strengthens you by a special Sacrament so that you may assume the duties of marriage in mutual and lasting fidelity.
And so, in the presence of the Church, I ask you to state your intentions.
Priest: Fernanda and Keith I shall now ask you if you freely undertake the obligations of marriage, and to state that there is no legal impediment to your marriage.
Are you ready freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage?
Bride and Groom: I am
Priest: Are you ready to love and honour each other as man and wife for the rest of your lives?
Bride and Groom: I am
Priest: Are you ready to accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?
Bride and Groom: I am
Consent
Priest: Since it is your intention to enter into marriage, declare your consent before God and his Church
The Groom says:
I call upon these persons here present to witness that I, Keith Griffiths do take thee, Fernanda Manuela Ferraz Carneiro to be my lawful wedded wife to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for ritcher for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part.
The Bride says:
I call upon these persons here present to witness that I, Fernanda Manuela Ferraz Carneiro do take thee, Keith Griffiths to be my lawful wedded husband to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part.
Acceptance of Consent
You have declared your consent before the Church. May the Lord in his goodness strengthen your consent and fill you both with his blessings.
What God had joined together, let no man put asunder.
Amen
Blessing and Exchange of Rings
May the Lord bless these rings which you give to each other as the sign of your love and fidelity.
Amen
Groom: Fernanda, take this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Bride: Keith, take this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Bidding Prayers
Brothers and sisters,
Let us pray for this new family, so that the love of these two spouses grow more and more and may the Lord protect them and all the families of the world
For these new spouses and for the wellbeing of their families
Lord, hear us.
Lord, graciously hear us.
For the parents and friends of these spouses
Lord, hear us.
Lord, graciously hear us.
For the young, that prepare themselves for holly matrimony
And for all that God calls to another standing in life
Lord, hear us.
Lord, graciously hear us.
For all the families in the world e for the peace between men
Lord, hear us.
Lord, graciously hear us.
For our family members that have already departed this world
Lord, hear us.
Lord, graciously hear us.
For the Church, blessed people of God, and for the unity of all the Christians
Lord, hear us.
Lord, graciously hear us.
Listen, O Lord,
To the prayers we offer for Fernanda and Keith.
May their love for one another
Be a never-failing reminder
Of your own love for us all.
We ask this through Chris our Lord
Amen
Offertory
Lord's prayer
The Nuptial Blessing
My dear friends, let us turn to the Lord and pray that he will bless with his grace this woman now married in Christ to this man and that he will unit in love the couple he has joined in this holy bond.
Holy Communion
Thanksgiving
