A Sacred Union, June 27, 1998

A Sacred Union
and
Commitment Ceremony

A
Midsummer's Night
Celebration
for
Lelia and Courtney
June 27, 1998

The Players:
The Reverend Harry Hoehler
The Reverend Judy Hoehler
LCO
ACB
Harriet H. Elliston
L.L.
Janine
The Musicians:
Jerald Harsher
Sandi Hammond
The Setting:
Today in Our Garden

It will mean so much to us if you
take a moment to sign the
“Certificate of Sacred Union”
as our witnesses to today’s ceremony.

Act One
The Ceremony, 5:00 p.m.
Greetings..... Judy & Harry
Welcome .....Harriet Elliston
Reading .....Harry Hoehler
Passages from The Book of Ruth
Reading . . . . . L.L.
from“Cien Sonetos de Amor”
by Pablo Neruda
Garden Treasures
Ballad ..... Sandi & Jerald
"To Ask for All Thy Love"
by John Dowland
Reading ..... Janine
Selection from “Letters”
by Rainer Maria Rilke
Intentions & Vows
Pronouncement ..... Harry Hoehler
Benediction ..... Judy Hoehler

Act Two
The Dinner, 6:00 p.m.
The Producers wish to thank

Lelia’s Family
Harriet H. Elliston
Penny & Stanley Orrell
The Elliston Family
The Orrell Family
The Hammond Family
Boo Boo the Czarina
Leda the Kitten

ACB's Family
Ann Mead Baker
The Baker, Danford, Eastman, Gruby, Hackeling,Hallenbeck, McKeone Family
Molly-Girl
Special Thanks to:
Mocha D. Andrade
Graham-Cat Movitz
&
The Dutch Flower Garden!

“...our life reminds me of a forest
in which there is a graceful clearing
and in that opening a house,
an orchard and garden,
comfortable shades, and flowers,
red and yellow in the sun,
a pattern made in the light
for the light to return to.
The forest is mostly dark,
its ways to be made a new
day after day,
the dark richer than the light
and more blessed,
provided we stay brave
enough to keep on going in.”

Wendall Berry, from
“The Country of Marriage”

Ceremony of Commitment
ACB and LCO


The Orrell Family	Lelia and ACB	The Baker Family

>Classical Guitar Music
>Lelia and Courtney Enter

JLH: Friends, we gather here to witness the ceremony of union of Lelia and Courtney, to surround them with our love, and to share in their joy. You have been invited today because you are special to Lelia and Courtney, special as family and as friends. And you are invited here, to this place, because the Elliston Farm is special for Lelia and Courtney, as it is for so many of us gathered here --- a magical place of peonies and raspberries, of birdsong and laughter, of barn swallows and shady summer afternoons. Nature is important to both Lelia and Courtney. Often, when working in the gardens with Harriet, they have come upon shards of pottery --- evidence of the lives of others who have gone before them, who have tilled and loved this soil. There is a rich heritage here of working the land, of tuning oneself to the seasons, of listening to and being refreshed by the ageless rhythms of nature. It is in this place, with all of you gathered here, that these two women have chosen to make their vows of commitment.

HHH: Lelia and Courtney, I would remind you that this celebration is the outward and visible sign of a sacred and inward union of hearts. It is a union created by loving purpose and kept by abiding will. We have come to rejoice for the world that God's love has found you.

	HHE: >A few words of Welcome by Harriet H. Elliston (spoke of The Farm, William A. Elliston, stones, gardening, life and nature).
Harriet Hammond Elliston (in pink of course) welcoming friends & family	HHH: Passages from the Book of Ruth

LL:
Pablo Neruda
From "Cien Sonetos de Amor"
Read By Lelia's Maid of Honor

Maybe nothingness is to be without your presence,
without you moving, slicing the noon
like a blue flower, without you walking
later through the fog and the cobbles,
without the light you carry in your hand,
golden, which maybe others will not see,
which maybe no one knew was growing
like the red beginnings of a rose.
In short, without your presence: without your coming
suddenly, incitingly, to know my life,
gust of a rosebush, wheat of a wind:
since then I am because you are,
since then you are, I am, we are,
and through love I will be, you will be, we'll be.

Courtney & Lelia listening to the readings
with the Reverends Judy & Harry Hoehler

JLH: Garden Treasures: Blessing of the Stones
Lelia and Courtney wanted to include you, their families and friends, in this ceremony so that you would not only be spectators but also participants. And so they invite you, at the close of the ceremony, to take a stone from this bowl. These stones are rose quartz. In the legends and stories that surround stones, the qualities attributed to the rose quartz are help in discovering the ability to love ourselves and help in dealing with difficult changes in our lives. According to the lore about stones, rose quartz is an excellent gift for conveying love in that it symbolizes self confidence, inner peace, a healing of emotional wounds, an opening of the human heart, and an enhancement of the capacity to love and be loved. It is in this spirit that Lelia and Courtney invite you to offer prayers for their life together, and then at the conclusion of the ceremony, to take a stone and, sometime during the reception, to quietly place it somewhere in the gardens or on the grounds. Then, in the days and years ahead, when they are gardening and come upon your stone, they will be reminded of the love, the hope, the good wishes which surround them on this day.

Let us pray: Almighty God, from whom comes every good and perfect gift, we give thanks for the love and trust which have brought Lelia and Courtney to this day. We pray that, trusting each other they may also trust life and not be afraid; that loving each other they may know more and more deeply the love of God and the love of their fellow human beings. Hear us now, O God, as we offer, each in his or her own way, our silent prayers for their happiness............(silence)...........Amen.

>Ballad by Sandi and Jerald

Janine:
Rainer Maria Rilke From "Letters"
Read by Courtney's Maid of Honor

Marriage is in many ways a simplification of life, and it naturally combines the strengths and wills of two young people so that, together, they seem to reach farther into the future than they did before. Above all, marriage is a new task and a new seriousness, - a new demand on the strength and generosity of each partner, and a great new danger for both.

The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of [her] solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side by side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky.

That is why this too must be the criterion for rejection or choice: whether you are willing to stand guard over someone else's solitude, and whether you are able to set this same person at the gate of your own depths, which he learns of only through what steps forth, in holiday clothing, out of the great darkness.

Life is self-transformation, and human relationships, which are an extract of life, are the most changeable of all, they rise and fall from minute to minute, and lovers are those for whom no moment is like any another. People between whom nothing habitual ever takes place, nothing that has already existed, but just what is new, unexpected, unprecedented. There are such connections, which must be a very great, an almost unbearable happiness, but they can occur only between very rich beings, between those who have become, each for his own sake, rich, calm, and concentrated; only if two worlds are wide and deep and individual can they be combined....

...For the more we are, the richer everything we experience is. And those who want to have a deep love in their lives must collect and save for it, and gather honey.

HHH: Lelia, do you give yourself to Courtney? Do you commit yourself to her, to be responsible to her in the faithful relationship of holy union? To give yourself to her in love and work. And to invite her fully into your being so that she can know who you are? To cherish her above all others and respect her individually, encouraging her to be herself and to grow in all that God intends? If so, say "I do".

Intentions

JLH: Courtney, do you give yourself to Lelia? Do you commit yourself to her, to be responsible to her in the faithful relationship of holy union? To give yourself to her in love and work. And to invite her fully into your being so that she can know who you are? To cherish her above all others and respect her individually, encouraging her to be herself and to grow in all that God intends? If so, say "I do".

Vows - Lelia and Courtney join hands and face each other, repeating after HHH:

I, Lelia, take you, Courtney, to be my partner in life. I will cherish our friendship, love you today, tomorrow and forever. I will trust and honor you. I will love you faithfully through the best and the worst. I will listen and be patient. I will be trusting and open. I will be honest, gentle and considerate. I will laugh with you, cry with you and share my deepest feelings with you. As I have given you my hand to hold, so I give you my life to keep.

I, Courtney, take you, Lelia, to be my partner in life. I will cherish our friendship, love you today, tomorrow and forever. I will trust and honor you. I will love you faithfully through the best and the worst. I will listen and be patient. I will be trusting and open. I will be honest, gentle and considerate. I will laugh with you, cry with you and share my deepest feelings with you. As I have given you my hand to hold, so I give you my life to keep.

JLH: What token do you give that you will fulfill these vows?	Lelia & Courtney: "These rings."
JLH: These rings are the outward symbols and visible signs of an inward and spiritual bond which unites two loyal hearts in endless love. By their shape, these rings are symbols of the undying love that exists between you. The substance of which they are composed is a symbol of purity, which shall ever characterize your minds and hearts in all your relationships together.

Lelia: In token and in pledge, of my constant faith and abiding love, with this ring I give to you all that I am.

Courtney: In token and in pledge, of my constant faith and abiding love, with this ring I give to you all that I am.

Pronouncement - HHH:
Forasmuch as Lelia and Courtney have pledged themselves to each other before God and this company by speaking their vows and by exchanging rings symbolizing their new relationship, let it be known that on this twenty-seventh day of June, in the year 1998, they have been joined in Sacred Union.

Benediction -JLH:

And now, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord's face shine upon you and be gracious unto you; may the Lord's countenance be lifted upon you and give you peace, this day and forevermore. Amen.


Sealed with a kiss	Exiting to sign The Certificate of Sacred Union	Hoehlers signing certificate, followed by family and friends

> Reception begins

Special thanks go to:


"Mocha D." Andrade Our Fab Friend and DJ	Graham-"Cat" Movitz Our "fix it Graham"... "help Graham" Man and Friend	Our Photographer, Laura Wulf Light Years Photography Jamaica Plain, MA

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We also recommend using the Bostonia Chamber Music Players for your ceremony