CREEDE HINSHAW: Clergy-officiated weddings are on the decline

The Styles section of the Oct. 13, 2019, New York Times reported that Stephanie Yarbrough and John Few were married Oct. 12, 2019, at St. Philip’s Church in Charleston. S.C., by the Rev. Brian McGreevy, an Episcopal priest. Their ceremony was an anomaly, at least according to the announcements in one newspaper.

That Styles section carried 26 wedding announcements. Only four out of those 26 couples were wed in a church/chapel/synagogue by a traditionally ordained clergyperson.

This unscientific sampling confirms a trend that most clergy and laity recognize.

Of the 26 officiants listed in that issue of the Times, more than 1/3 were ordained by the Universal Life Church, an online “church” that boasts to have issued free, legal ordination papers to 20 million persons. Two more officiants were ordained by Universal Life wannabe organizations and five other officiants were listed as “friends.” Weddings (and funerals) are rapidly disappearing from the list of clergy responsibilities.

I was a little surprised to learn that only four out of 26 of these weddings took place in churches. The other 22 were held in venues across the country: boat houses, museums, tennis clubs, restaurants, historic homes, sculpture gardens, ranches, hotels and a gallery at the Smithsonian.

An article in the same section of the New York Times reported that Las Vegas has been declining as a wedding venue for quite a few years. (Gee, I never thought Las Vegas and the church would share in the same woes.)

Although Vegas hosted 74,534 weddings in 2018, that’s a 40% slippage from the high-water mark of 2004. My guess is that most of Clark County, Nev.’s wedding decline is because venues can now be found in every zip code in the United States. Why book tickets to Vegas when you can get married in the produce section of the Kroger? (Yes, a friend of mine was the officiant.)

As for the do-it-yourself pastor, a few months ago the New York Times printed a column by a technology specialist – yes, a technology specialist! — advising readers how they, too, could officiate at weddings. Nothing to it, wrote Whitson Gordon.

I won’t bore you with the sophomoric advice which consisted mainly of a “few clicks of a mouse” and some cutting and pasting of various online ceremonies so that you, too, dear reader, can be an officiant.

Of course, some weddings led by internet-ordained, mouse-clicking officiants are beautiful, meaningful and moving. If the choice of an officiant is an unknown clergyperson versus a close friend, that’s an easy choice. And indoor or outdoor venues can be breathtakingly beautiful. Those who rarely worship should not be expected to choose a church or synagogue for their wedding day.

So chalk this column up to a retired United Methodist pastor who longs for the good old days. When it comes to major electrical work at my house, I want a real electrician. Nor am I keen on internet-trained surgeons. When it comes to planning the most important ceremony in a couple’s life, there’s no better choice than a sensitive, trained clergyperson.