Several people who were at the wedding ceremony remarked that it had a very Jewish feel to it, and I agree with them. In the liturgy, many references were made to Old Testament figures: Isaac & Rebekah, Jacob & Rachel, etc., all the way up to Zechariah & Elizabeth at the beginning of the New Testament. The bridal couple shared a cup of sacramental wine. Much of the ceremony was chanted, both in Greek and in English, but chanted/spoken so fast that I only caught a few words of Greek here and there (with apologies to Drs. Carlson and Voelz, my Greek is unfortunately not that good).
And yet, it was a Christian ceremony. I cringed on the inside as Ephesians 5 with the Haustafel (household code) was read, and remembered translating that with Dr. Carlson, talking about the canon within a canon, etc. But it was very clear that the Greek Orthodox wedding ceremony has passages like Ephesians 5 in mind as a model for marriage. The couple did not speak vows to one another because the wedding is not viewed as a contract in the Greek Orthodox church. Instead, the bride and groom are crowned queen and king of their household, and the priest declares them betrothed to one another. Everything is done in threes, in honor of the Trinity. The Kyrie was chanted three times (about the second time I started wondering what was going on--didn't we pray for these people already???) , the rings were crossed three times before being put on the couple's hands, the crowns were crossed three times before being placed on the couple's heads, and the couple circled the altar three times, being joined by the ribbon connecting their crowns. I can't help wondering if the Western Church had retained more of its connection to its Jewish roots, if our wedding ceremonies and our services would have more of this type of flavor to it. I loved the ritual, but would have thrown out the Ephesians passage. The Gospel that was chanted (yes, both of these lengthy passages were chanted--it was awesome!) was the wedding at Cana where Jesus did his first miracle: changing water into wine. And I remember struggling to preach on that text in the Wedding Proclamation class that I took at seminary, because the text really has nothing to do with weddings and marriage per se. But as I listened to it being chanted, and to the liturgy that mentioned this, I realized that the reason this is done at weddings is because Jesus blessed the couple being married at Cana with his presence, and that the church prays for the presence of Jesus at the wedding of the couple that is happening now. Hopefully I will remember this in the future when I will be asked to preach at weddings on this text.
In any case, the ceremony was beautiful and I was proud to stand with my brother and his bride, as well as all of their friends, on that day. I pray that many happy years together will be granted to them.
