About Us

We are "non-pushy" Christian ministers who believe that God loves everybody equally - no matter their religion or denomination. Many of our officiants are retired Roman Catholic priests, or priests within other Catholic Rites, or ministers within various Christian denominations. Some are members of the Catholic Diocese of One Spirit (www.onespiritcathlic.org)EVERY ONE OF US HONORS EVERY RELIGION, EVERY DENOMINATION, AND EVERY SPIRITUALITY. GOD LOVES US ALL THE SAME … AND SO DO WE!

Here is an explanation of how this wedding ministry views denominations (though not every minister/priest within it views it exactly the same way, of course):

Over the two thousand years of Christianity there have been many, many different "rites" (which are simply names for different ways of living and celebrating Christianity within the "One Church." From the time of the apostle Paul, local "churches" were organized around a "bishop," whose authority was considered to be service to the people of God rather than dictatorial, and whose designation was passed on from the apostles ("Apostolic Succession"). At the beginning of this third millennium, within the Catholic portion of Christianity, there are now about 200 different rites. The largest, of course, is the Roman rite, with about 950 million members. The Eastern Orthodox Church has about 300 million members (2 million or so in the United States). The Eastern Orthodox have not been in communion with Rome for the last 900 years, but are as "Catholic" as "Catholics." About half the Catholic rites now in existence (Catholic "rites" are similar to Protestant "denominations") are in communion with Rome, and half are not. There are also, of course, many Protestant Christian denominations, now numbering about 450 million, which originally arose to reform the abuses and scandals within the Catholic Church in the 16th-18th centuries. These Christians adhere to the essentials of the Gospels of Jesus, just as do Catholics and Orthodox. The non-essentials that separate the various Christian denominations are relatively unimportant ... they are differences that arose after the time of Christ, of the Apostles, of the New Testament writers and of the Early Church. They are differences that made no difference to the earliest disciples of Christ.

For the first several hundred years of the Church's history, the position of the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) was quite secondary in the formation and sustaining of the Church. It still is considered quite secondary among the Eastern Orthodox and the Protestant denominations. For hundreds of years after that, at least through the 8th century, he was looked at primarily as the "bridge builder" (the latin word "pontifex," from which the word "pontiff" comes, means "bridge builder"), the one who did not take sides but who was open to all. The temporal and spiritual power of the Pope (in the West only) was solidified beyond first millennium recognition during the last 1,000 years, due to early political threats, church abuse and scandals followed by breakaways and hardened positions, and by simple human predilection.

This national marriage service is a ministry of Rev. Jim Burch, who is a bishop, of the Cathlolic Diocese of One Spirit (www.Onespiritcatholic.com)." He is one of literally thousands upon thousands of priests who, beginning with the systematic glutting of Vatican II that took hold in the late 1960s and early 1970s, felt that the beautiful spirituality and liturgies of the Catholic Church had simply acquired too much baggage. The church had become, all too often, a gatekeeper to keep people out rather than welcome them in. There were too many categories of people who were not welcome, whereas Christ had no barriers to anybody at all. There were dogmas and doctrines hardened in stone, despite the fact that few thought in the references anymore that those dogmas and doctrines were framed in. There were too many rules and regulations for what you had to do and what you had to think to avoid going to hell, whereas Christ simply showed that God was Love in which we participate, told stories and asked people what they thought (he respected them wherever they were), and gave ideals to live by rather than criteria to avoid "hell." So, we thought, could we do less? It seemed like a pretty good set of principles to return to. This Wedding Ministry follows those principles.

Jesus was a pretty smart fellow! If he had wanted to write a rule book to be passed down through the ages, he certainly would have done just that. Obviously, he did not. There are many ways to discover God in our lives ... in fact, we each create our own way. What helps you become a more loving person is where you should be. The philosophy that each of the priests or ministers referred to in this wedding service - no matter what our denomination -- is that we put no pressure on you to do it "our way;" we encourage you to keep on doing it "your way."