Ecumenical wedding according to Form C
The ecumenical marriage according to Form C is a form of church marriage between a Roman Catholic and a Protestant spouse. The specialty is that the service is led by a Roman Catholic clergyman and a Protestant clergyman together and according to a common order. The marriage according to Form C is only possible in the area of the former state of Baden .
background
The Codex Iuris Canonici of the Roman Catholic Church provides, if at least one of the bride and groom belongs to the Catholic Church, as a formal requirement that marriage must take place with the assistance of a cleric, otherwise it will not be valid. (see marriage law of the Catholic Church )
If one of the bride and groom is not Catholic and wishes a clergyman of his denomination to participate, the wedding can be done with the assistance of both clergymen. The German Bishops' Conference and the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany worked out the liturgical order of the joint celebration of church weddings , which was revised in 1995. Form C provides for an ecumenically developed rite in which both clergymen participate equally. For example, Article 4, Paragraph 3 of the Church's order of life "marriage and marriage" of the Evangelical Regional Church in Baden determines:
"If the wife or husband belongs to the Catholic Church, the wedding service can take place either according to the Protestant or the Catholic ceremony with the participation of those authorized to marry from both churches or as an ecumenical wedding according to Form C."
The order was agreed in 1974 between the Archdiocese of Freiburg on the one hand and the Evangelical Regional Church in Baden , the Moravian Brethren , the Evangelical Methodist Church and the Old Catholic Church on the other. Therefore, the use of Form C is limited to the area of the Archdiocese of Freiburg, i.e. the former state of Baden.
procedure
The ecumenical eagle form C defines the process of the church wedding. After the opening song, greeting and one of four prayer texts, there is a scripture reading ( Gen 2,18 EU , Mt 19,4b – 6 EU or Col 3,12–15a EU ). The subsequent eaves question can be addressed to both spouses at the same time or one after the other. The necessary declaration of consensus is given before the Catholic cleric. This is followed by the prayer and blessing of the bride and groom. After the Lord's Prayer , the marriage Bible is handed over, the blessing can be spoken according to various given texts. The marriage is recorded in the respective church registers.
