1. Quartet Interlude
2. Moms ushered in, light family candles
3. Pause in music, quartet begins “In My Life”
4. Flower girl strews flower petals across stage, sits front row
5. Groomsmen and bridesmaids enter
6. Alan enters, “All Rise”
7. Kendra & Pancho enter, stand left of Alan – Tim steps up, opposite Kendra
8. “Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here as one in the sight of God and this company to join Tim and Kendra in joyful, spiritual marriage, and to bear witness to the continuously evolving, transforming power of love.”
9. “Who has brought this woman to this place in her life, and now gives her freely to this union?”
- Pancho signifies, exits right, Tim & Kendra step together
10. Alan – Welcome
“Welcome, everyone, to this wonderful place and time, where Tim and Kendra have come to dedicate themselves to each other, and to embark on a shared life of surrender to love, of trust in love, and of learning in love.
Let us pray:
Dear God, whose name is Love, fill our hearts to overflowing, so that your light and your joy may flow through us and around us here today. Tim and Kendra stand here before you with hearts and minds open to receive your inspiration and your blessing, and we who join them make our own pledge to honor and uphold their union throughout our days together.
With all our hearts we pray – AMEN
11. We have always relied on artists to illuminate and expand on our deeper feelings and insights, and to express them in ways that can be shared by kindred spirits. Kendra’s brother Tucker will now read a lovers’ poem by the 13th century Persian poet, Mowlana Jalalud’din Rumi.
When I am with you, we stay up all night.
when you’re not here, I can’t go to sleep.
Praise god for these two insomnias!
and the difference between them.
The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don’t meet somewhere.
They’re in each other all along.
We are the mirror as well as the face in it.
We are tasting the taste this minute
of eternity. We are pain
and what cures pain, both. We are
the sweet cold water and the jar that pours.
12. Alan – Message
Rumi’s poetry reflects on perceptions that come from some of the Earth’s oldest religious lore, where it is said that in a time before time, God was all – he was omniscient, total, complete, perfect,… and alone. And, as many of us know, it’s not good to be alone, even if you are perfect. But it was a unique problem for God, because there was nothing apart from Him to be with, so rather than creating the universe, he became it. He became everything and nothing, he became matter and energy, light and dark, up and down, in and out, animal, vegetable, and mineral. He became male and female. He became you and me and the stars, in a boundlessly entertaining game of hide-and-seek. But to make the game fun, to make the illusion really real, he has to pretend that he isn’t God, that he really is just a rock, a fish, a you and a me. And he hides so well that it can take a very long time for us to find out that we are God in disguise, pretending not to be Himself. But the key to the game, what exposes the illusion and in the end totally blows it away, is the one thing that can’t be disguised, it is the very essence of God – it is Love.
All the commandments boil down to “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and that’s a pretty tall order. It is a challenge to love. It can be painful to love, but if you cannot embrace the pain of love, you cannot completely know the joy of love.
Life is an exercise in loving, and that exercise can be tiring. Sometimes it’s easy to feel like we’re just casting our bread on the water, which is good, because it teaches us the intrinsic rewards of loving without the thought of return. But when, through the shared experiences of discovery, and passion, and service, and commitment, two people come together in a place where all the masks can come off, then love is more than an exercise, it’s a workout. No less of a challenge, no less risk – ahh, but the rewards. In that special place, through that joyful labor, you can know that all the love you give will be felt, and appreciated, and returned. And it can really get you in shape for the everyday love your neighbor stuff. And at the end of a long day, all it takes is a look and a smile to know that everything is alright; and just a touch, an embrace, to know that your heart has come home, that you’ve found your little piece of heaven.
Marriage is a bond between two people and a bond between two families. It is also a liberation for two individuals embarking on a great adventure, a new identity, and a new cycle in their lives. Tim and Kendra will now light their unity candle from the flames of their family candles, symbolizing the joining of their families, while Tim’s sister Tracey reads a passage from the Song of Solomon, calling his lover away to the new life that awaits them.
12. Tracey reads Bible passage while Tim & Kendra light unity candle
Song of Solomon, 2, 10 – 13
My Beloved speaks and says to me:
“Arise my love, my fair one,
and come away,
for now the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the Earth,
The time of singing has come,
And the voice of the turtle dove
Is heard in our land.