[names of couple], we rejoice to celebrate with you the reaffirmation of your marriage covenant, as you re-commit yourselves as /wife and husband / partners/ wives / husbands/ in marriage. [Use the terminolopgy chosen by the couple.] This year you celebrate ____ years of marriage, your anniversary coming up on [date].
In this post-modern world, a world some would call post-marriage, your on-going commitment, your steadfast love, and your desire to continue being coupled into the future, provide a strong witness of the possibilities of love. Love that can withstand all storms and overcome all obstacles. We celebrate the delight you have found in each other and thank you for being a sign of God’s love among us.
Pray with me
Source of Life, we gather to celebrate your gift of love and its physical presence among us embodied in the love of [names]. We rejoice that they have kept their wedding vows to one another and choose to re-commit themselves to continuing a life of loving faithfulness and fidelity. [Change words as necessary to be honest.] We thank/praise you, God, for the ways you have touched our lives with a variety of loving relationships.
Thank you for your love that lives within us and calls us from loneliness to companionship. Thank you for all who have gone before us, those whose lives are shared in the Bible, and for countless parents whose names we do not know.
Thank you for our own parents, and for all, whether married or single, who have been mother or father to us, as we have grown and continue to grow to the fullness of who you want us to be.
We remember and confess that we often have failed to be loving, that we have taken for granted the people for whom we care most. We selfishly neglect and strain the bonds that unite us with others. We hurt those who love us and we withdraw from the community that encircles us. Forgive us.
Renew within us an affectionate spirit. Enrich our lives with the gracious gift of your love so that we may embrace others with love. May our participation in this celebration of love and re-commitment give to us a new joy-and-responsiveness to the relationships we cherish. May the power of your Spirit sustain [names] and all of us in love that knows no end.
Continue to bless [names of couple], that they may have the grace to live out the promises they have reaffirmed today. Let their love for each other be a seal on their hearts, a mantle about their shoulders, and a crown on their heads. Continue to bless their daily lives together, their sleeping and their waking, their coming and their going.
Bring them to old age, rejoicing in love’s winter even more fully than in its springtime. Amen.
