Replies

That’s extremely interesting. Thank you!

I mentioned marriage in my post because that’s the only “ceremony” of those mentioned in the article that could be considered “valid” or “invalid.” There’s legally valid - does your state consider you married? - and then there’s “valid” according to one’s particular religious group.

“Birth ceremonies,” “death ceremonies,” etc. Valid? Whatever kind of “ceremony” is held, the person’s either been born, or died, or not!

We are serving in China, and we just officiated a wedding this morning. Because the couples’ official residence ID is in another province, but they are members of our church, we had to make a decision. It is incredibly sticky to get one's residence ID (in Mandarin “hu’kou”) changed.

The church agreed with me that we should officiate the wedding under the auspices of the church, hear the couples’ vows, make them sign written copies of their vows. The church issued its own marriage certificate to the couple.

We just got a text message with a “Thank you” from them, and telling us they are having a wonderful time. Neither had ever stayed in a hotel before. My wife and I reserved them a very nice room in a four-star hotel as our wedding gift to them — they are just like our own children.

When they can do so, they will travel to their home province and register their marriage. That is all it is in China anyway, a registration; no vows, affirmations or promises about anything.

This is a Christian couple. They wanted the church involved in their wedding. The church (and, we believe, the Lord) considers the couple husband and wife from TODAY, when they made their vows to God and to each other with the entire church body as a corporate witness. Every church member in attendance signed as a witness to their making their vows.

The vows they made today are more stringent than the vows taken by 98% of Americans who wed, unless Mormons have more stringent vows peculiar to the doctrine of the LDS. If you'd like, I can post the vows that they made.