Our Pastors
Dear Friends,
Thank you for considering the First Congregational Church in the preparation for your wedding and marriage.
First you should know that we enter into this glad ministry with the conviction that marriage is a spiritual state of being--because it is constructed of the most intimate and profound commitment, courage, humor and vision of which we human beings are capable.As such,we are eager to make ourselves and the resources of this Christian faith community available to you in any way that might be helpful—now and as your marriage unfolds over time. We do this because we believe that God, most of all, stands ready to offer the support, the patience, the forgiveness and the love that make the wonder of marriage possible!
We consider the wedding ceremony to be a service of worship of God, in praise of the sustaining love which we receive at God’s hand. At the heart of the ceremony are the promises made by the partners, witnessed by family and friends, symbolically by the church and most of all by God. Wedding ceremonies at First Congregational Church of Reading are Christian in character and can also reflect ecumenical, interfaith and intercultural relationships.
You should also know that we view our participation in your wedding as a privilege, a personal pleasure and a high responsibility. We invite you to engage with us in a process of reflection and planning that does justice to the magnitude of this event in your lives. We will engage with you in a multi-session Pre-Marital Preparation Program, which uses our experience and solid tools to provide you with feedback and recommendations to support a lifelong, joyful partnership that glorifies God. The nature of marriage itself, and the particulars of each couple’s vocation to life partnership, form the core of the reflection and planning that we will do together.
The wedding worship service is a symbol of the spiritual realities of marriage, and our goal is to assist couples in planning a ceremony in the larger context of preparing for marriage, keeping the focus on the things that matter most between people who are preparing to exchange vows to last a lifetime. Should you decide to enter into this process with us, we of course will provide further details.
We look forward to hearing from you to schedule the next step in your preparation for this most amazing journey of the Spirit. We are honored to minister with you and stand with you at this turning point of such joy and significance in your lives.
With our prayers and blessings,
The Reverend Wendy Miller Olapade, Senior Pastor
The
Reverend Eric Redard, Associate Pastor
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