Please Read and Give Opinion

A friend applied to the Church of Seven Planes to be ordained to perform all rites of the church like marriages and funerals etc. Would some of you go to the following site and see if they can really do this. Is it legal??


www.sevenplanes.org/ordain.htm

There are any number of small church groups that will ordain ministers for performing those rites. As far as I know, it's legal in most states. Large church bodies (Baptists, Methodists, etc.) usually require some education.

However, whether states will legally accept a marraige performed in that fashion without also adhering to state laws (like blood tests, etc.) could be questioned.

A friend of mine recieved her license (ordaining) via a tiny blub ad in The National Enquirer....cost her like $19.99. She is now a minister of The Church of The Sun, or some such nonesence.

I don't think it is a legally binding paper and I would be leary of anyone offering to marry another with this type of "ordination"...

Birth, marriage, death, and taxes are all legal events, not religious ones. In most states anyone, including your local wal-mart greeter can perform a wedding ceremory. However, a wedding ceremony officiated by the Pope doesn't make you married either. What makes you married is the piece of paper that is filed with the State of Fill in the Blank that says you are married. When the typical ceremony ends with the words "By the power vested in my by the State of Blah Blah, I now pronounce you husband and wife", what that means is the person saying those words has registered either indivdually, or is registered by virtue of his or her affiliation with a registered church or judicial organization to sign a marriage certificate as an officiating witness. In some states you can even register to be the officiating witness of your own wedding and you and your intended can have a private ceremony with nobody else around at all. But make no mistake, a wedding and a marriage are not one and the same. The person that really has the first and last say is somebody you don't even know and will never know. It is the clerk at city or county hall that opens the mail, rubber stamps the certificate, and (hopefully) files it correctly.

Thanks for the info.

Here in Florida a notary public can legally perform a marriage ceremony. To be a notary public, all you have to do is fill out some papers and send them in with money. (Yes, I'm an N.P., but no, I haven't performed any ceremonies!)

Maybe you will now :)

I was a N.P. (now retired) and performed three weddings. For some reason they were all outside, which made it even nicer, and I loved doing it for my friends.

Now, for those of you who don't keep up with the latest Britney gossip (grin) this is how she worked it. They were married in a surprise ceremony, BUT didn't register it with the Clerk of Court until the prenuptial agreement had taken effect. How's that for working the system!
Pati

Pati, neat. I'm all for working the system. >))

I think a lot of these "off the wall" churches are formed simply to avoid paying taxes by becoming a 501c3 organization..

I was a Notary in Virginia where you could not perform marriages...then I was a Notary in Florida where you could. A Notary is Bonded so it's not like sending in $19.95.....Jo

Jo, that's what I thought was strange. I was a notary here in KY and I couldn't perform marriages.