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As chief bridesmaid at her best friend’s wedding, Claire Duke knew a certain amount of responsibility and planning would fall to her. What she didn’t imagine was that it would cost her so much money to attend the lavish ceremony that her debt would last longer than her friend’s marriage. Claire’s friend, Siobhan, chose a Caribbean beach setting for her big day four years ago. Claire, 33, a chef from the Isle of Man, says: ‘They wanted us to be there no matter what.’

EW YORK (JTA) – Conservative Rabbi Seymour Rosenbloom has been expelled from the Rabbinical Assembly, the movement’s rabbis’ association, for performing interfaith weddings. An ordained Conservative rabbi for 44 years, Rosenbloom was expelled by unanimous vote last month after a hearing of the R.A.’s Executive Council. Since 1972, the Conservative movement has prohibited its rabbis from officiating at or even attending intermarriages. Rosenbloom told JTA the council offered to retain his membership in exchange for a promise not to perform any more intermarriages. Rosenbloom declined the offer.

We have some great news to report for old school fans of Gold Rush as former star Dakota Fred Hurt has married Jennifer Sheets, his Executive Assistant and cook for his mining crew! In attendance at the wedding was fellow Gold Rush star Tony Beets and his wife Minnie Beets. [snip] Dakota Fred and son Dustin Hurt announced back in February that they were looking for crew members to run “a swift water suction dredge gold mine high up in the mountains of S E Alaska,” and the job posting included the sentence: “You will also need to be happy...

The number of weddings being performed by the Church of Scotland slipped below the number of humanist ceremonies taking place for the first time last year, latest figures have shown. The decline in church weddings is yet another indication of declining support for the increasingly liberal Kirk. According to figures from the National Records of Scotland 4,290 Humanist wedding ceremonies took place in Scotland in 2015, of which approximately 80 percent (3,378) were conducted by the Humanist Society Scotland (HSS).

And Out You Go! Why Fainting Is So Common in Church Msgr. Charles Pope • May 24, 2016 • In my over 26 years as a priest (even longer serving in some capacity at the Holy Liturgy) I have witnessed more than a few people faint. Some just slump over; others go out with a real bang. Weddings are a big source of fainting spells, but just about any long Mass produces its share of “lights out” experiences. Some years ago, when I was serving as First Assistant Deacon for a Pontifical Solemn High Mass in the Basilica, we...

A Texas judge is so opposed to same-sex weddings that he wants every couple he marries -- straight or gay -- to sign a document acknowledging his views. The agreement required by Judge James R. DePiazza, of The Colony, which is just north of Dallas, states that he doesn't want to perform same-sex weddings but will do so if asked ... "I think it's an interesting innovation in trying to hold your nose and do your job by making everybody else hold your nose as well," Katherine Franke, the director of the Public Rights/Private Conscience Project at Columbia University's law...

In a year and a half, Americans will elect a new president. What issues will be foremost in their minds? Allow me to set the table for you: The U.S. economic recovery is anemic at best, with long-term joblessness still a major problem confronting millions of Americans. Income inequality has widened, and poverty has increased. In the past six years, scandal has shaken the VA, the IRS, ATF, the Justice Department and most recently the DEA, which is why it's not surprising that Americans name "government" the most important problem facing the country today, according to Gallup. Overseas, the Islamic...

After all the heated rhetoric over Indiana’s controversial religious freedom law, this rights debate could ultimately come down to a cake war. Just as diners were at the epicenter of the fight over racial desegregation, bakeries have become a flashpoint today. Conservatives in Indiana and elsewhere have objected to bakers (and florists and photographers) being “forced by the government to participate in a homosexual wedding.” While those conservatives have been rightly ridiculed for failing to explain how the Indiana law as originally formulated would not license bigotry, critics can be equally chastised for failing to explain where to draw the...

In response to the likelihood that a federal judge will rule that a lift on the state's gay marriage ban will apply to all Florida counties, three Jacksonville-area counties have decided that they'll stop conducting courthouse weddings. In order to avoid having to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies, clerks of courts in Duval County, Baker County and Clay County have decided to put an end to all courthouse weddings in their counties, The Florida Times-Union reported Wednesday. Although the report states that the clerks listed multiple reasons for their decision, with the state's limbo over gay marriage being one of them,...

<p>Two Christian ministers who own an Idaho wedding chapel were told they had to either perform same-sex weddings or face jail time and up to $1,000 in fines, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court.</p> <p>Alliance Defending Freedom is representing Donald and Evelyn Knapp, two ordained ministers who own the Hitching Post Wedding Chapel in Coeur d’Alene.</p>

With the Vatican’s Synod on the Family fast approaching and Pope Francis’ call to the Catholic Church to be a “field hospital for sinners” more focused on mercy than rules, lots of people are looking for hints at what the gathering of bishops will urge at the extraordinary synod next month. A wedding of 20 couples in St. Peter’s Square, some of whom cohabited prior to marriage, has CBS News hailing the “progressive Pope,” who’s progressively progressive. Or something: Many had been living together prior to getting married, which is forbidden in Catholicism. Some even have children.But none of...

The word family had a wider meaning both Aramaic and Hebrew than it does in our English word today. The Hebrew, ah and the Aramaic aha could be used to refer to those who were brothers and sisters, half brothers, cousins and even other near relations. Extended family networks were both insisted upon, and essential for survival. To have these ties and be dependent upon them, was every Jewish person’s duty, and an absolute necessity for survival.Marriage – Of course marriage is the heart of family. The very first order that God gave Adam and Eve, was that a man...

Call off the wedding. Spotsylvania County in Virginia has imposed “special use permit” restrictions on a couple that’s been hosting marriages for years — effectively nullifying future nuptials at a once-thriving business. Gary Gratopp, co-owner of Eden Try, said the county crackdown “defies logic.” Yet the move resembles actions in nearby Fauquier County, where officials are employing permitting requirements to harass and intimidate private-property owners

March 3, 2014 (Breakpoint.org) - The call for tolerating same-sex marriage has become a demand for compliance. Cases like Masterpiece Cake Shop in Colorado and Elane Huguenin’s New Mexico photography business have shown us that “tolerance” ends exactly where the right to say “no” begins. And so people, businesses, and non-profits are forced to choose between their livelihoods and their convictions. Some fellow Christians are giving this new state of affairs a thumbs-up, including Kirsten Powers, whose fearless stand against abortion I admire, and Skye Jethani, a friend I respect greatly. They argue that Christians who won’t participate in gay...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Denying services to same-sex couples may soon become legal in Kansas. House Bill 2453 explicitly protects religious individuals, groups and businesses that refuse services to same-sex couples, particularly those looking to tie the knot. It passed the state's Republican-dominated House on Wednesday with a vote of 72-49, and has gone to the Senate for a vote. Such a law may seem unnecessary in a state where same-sex marriage is banned, but some Kansas lawmakers think different. They want to prevent religious individuals and organizations from getting sued, or otherwise punished, for not providing goods or services to gay couples --...

SNIPPET: "The forces fighting against Assad's regime in Syria include foreigners who have come to take part in the uprising alongside the Syrian rebels. Among them are members of Jordan's Salafi-jihadi movement, which, according to its senior leaders, has so far dispatched some 250 fighters to Syria.[1] As one means of encouraging Jordanian youths to join its ranks and adopt the ideology of jihad and martyrdom, the Salafi-jihadi movement stages "martyrs' weddings" for fighters killed in Syria, based on the Islamic belief that every martyr is rewarded with 72 black-eyed virgin brides in Paradise. These "weddings" are not a new...

The Petraeus sex scandal didn't just reveal the former CIA director's bedroom secrets. It's also shined a spotlight on a romantic facility in Berryville, Virginia, 65 miles from Washington where David and Holly Petraeus' daughter Anne married Matt Mauney last month in a picturesque setting the couple celebrated with pictures on her blog, fannetasticfood.com. Rosemont Manor owner William Genda told Secrets that he is sad about how the publicity came to his facility, but happy for the new business it is bringing from the Washington area. "It's probably been good," he told Secrets. Only in business for two years, the...

Across the country, gay couples are fighting for the same marriage rights as straight couples. But in the Conservative Jewish movement, heterosexual couples may soon clamor for the kind of partnerships now reserved only for lesbians and gays. This spring, a committee that creates laws for the Conservative Jewish movement approved two ceremonies for same-sex couples that strip marriage liturgy of any reference to ownership, makes double-ring ceremonies officially part of the wedding and allows either party to initiate a divorce — three issues that have long been sticking points among Jewish brides.

A notary in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo has sparked controversy by accepting a civil union between three people. Public Notary Claudia do Nascimento Domingues has said the man and two women should be entitled to family rights. She says there is nothing in law to prevent such an arrangement. But the move has angered some religious groups, while one lawyer described it as "absurd and totally illegal". The three individuals, who have declined to speak to the press, have lived in Rio de Janeiro together for three years and share bills and other expenses. Ms Domingues says they...

Most priests, if they are lucky and smart, have a trained music director or organist to whom they can refer the Bride (sometimes with the groom) to finalize music for weddings. Then he can refer them and avoid a ton of trouble. Yet, occasionally he has to duck for cover when the flak from the battle between bride and organist gets thick.Don’t get me wrong, everything generally goes fine and most brides and grooms are just fine. But every now and then, there’s a bride (and sometimes a groom) who are the irresistible force that meet the immoveable object (i.e....