Vows

From their hearts, couples speak vows that capture their love for one another and the power of this special moment. See 7 examples below for your use.

 

1) Joyfully and with utter seriousness, I, _____, make to you _____ this covenant of partnership (marriage).  I promise to love and trust you, to speak the truth to you and hear it from you, to sustain and nurture you in faith and tenderness, and with you to receive every day as a gift of God, until we are parted by death.

 

2) I, _____, take you _____, to be my wife (husband)(partner), to live with you according to God’s purposes, to love and trust you, to speak the truth to you and hear it from you; to sustain and nurture you; and with you to receive each day as a gift from God.

 

3) _____, in the name of God, I take you to be my wife(husband)(partner) from this time onward, to join with you and to share all that is to come, to give and to receive, to speak and to listen, to inspire and to respond, and in all our life together to be loyal to you with my whole being, as long as we both shall live.

 

4) I take you, _____, to be my partner and I promise you these things:

I will be faithful to you and honest with you.

I will respect you, trust you, help you, listen to you, and care for you.

I will share my life with you in plenty and in want.

I will forgive you as we have been forgiven, and I will try with you

to better understand ourselves, the world, and God,

so that together we may serve God and others forever.

 

5) I, _____, take you, ______, to be no other than yourself.  Loving what I know of you,

trusting what I don’t yet know, with respect to your integrity, and faith in your love for

me, through our years together, and in all that life may bring us, I accept you as my

partner in life.

6) To you I give my heart, I give my soul, I give my very self:

Into your hands I place my hopes and dreams, my strength and weakness.

To you I give my trust, my highest and my best.

To you and only you will I be forever true.

7) _____, I marry you this day, freely and joyfully joining my life with yours. Blessed by the Spirit, may the love of our tomorrows be as the love we share today – wondrous as the stars light, strong as an oak, faithful as the sun’s rising, enduring as the sea. Wherever we go, whatever life brings, I promise to do all in my power to live this love with you.


Contributed by Reverend Mary Kraus, & also Bishop Jonathan Blake and Ann B. Day from All Whom God Has Joined: Resources for Clergy & Same-Gender Loving Couples, (The Pilgrim Press, Cleveland, 2010).


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