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Renewed Vows Affirm Commitment
By Stan Friedman
REDWOOD CITY (April 20, 2006) - Chris and Phyllis Perry have been married 56
years. Chris and Heather Davidson have been married a little over seven
months. Recently, the two couples were among more than 100 individuals
who declared "I still do" during a renewal of their marriage vows at
Peninsula Covenant Church.
"It was a tremendous evening," says Daisy Segal, ministry partner to
Senior Pastor Gary Gaddini. "It was so wonderful to see people so
passionate about their marriage. It was a refreshing and uplifting night."
Gaddini has been preaching a series on marriage, and the staff thought
the renewal service would be a good way to live out the first message on
renewing the marriage covenant, says Segal, who coordinated the evening.
"People were all just very surprised at how meaningful it was," Segal
says. "A couple of the guys said of their own weddings, that it was just
a blur. This gave them a chance to hear what they were really committing
to."
Most of the couples were from the church, although some were from the
broader community. Segal says one couple brought their parents, who
didn't attend the church, to witness the ceremony, only to have the
parents decide when they arrived that they wanted to participate as well.
Segal says the service was easy to pull together. The ceremony included
old love songs from the 1940s to the 1970s that played while slides of
the couples were projected. Gaddini gave a meditation based on the Song
of Solomon, after which he invited all the couples to come forward, face
each other, and say their vows.
One man who had been married more than 40 years told Segal, "I can't
remember when the last time was that I looked into my wife's eyes that
long." He added he would be doing so more often.
Following the vows, the couples read prayers on the back of the bulletin
and then took part in communion and a time of prayer. The couples then
returned to the pews, where the husbands and wives shared memories of
their weddings. Gaddini then pronounced them "renewed in their vows."
Segal says the service was designed to take half an hour, but lasted 45
minutes because of the large number of people.
The couples had been encouraged to make the evening special by going out
for dinner afterward, but some did more. One care group ate dinner
before the ceremony and then had a wedding reception at someone's house
afterward, Segal says.
The next day, church member Paula Conlon had called a friend to tell her
about the evening. The friend then replied, "I'll hang up – you're on
your honeymoon!"
Editor's note: the top photo shows Glenn and Rita Stewart, married 47
years. The lower photo shows Yvonne and Todd Gumbrecht.
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