She commited suicide yesterday. I am holed up in the hospital and have no clue what to do. There are 2 other pastors from that Chapel- do you think one will take over her duties? I feel horrible for the situation and dont want to pester them as I am sure that they are very busy but at the same time I am getting married next month- May 29th. Would a justice of a peace work? Where would I find one?
tinyavenger
Favorite Answer
How horrible. One of the other pastors will take over your wedding. Being that your wedding is still 6 weeks away, I would give them a while before phoning them about your wedding. It will take them a few days to deal with the trama of losing a friend and and then a bit more to begin working out the details in the church. Chances are they will contact you about your service as by that time they will have worked things out and will possibly bring in a temporary replacement until they have decided on someone to fill her position.
?
You have plenty of time. Generally, one of the associate or youth pastors can also perform a marriage for you.
However, be sure that they are ordained some smaller churches or non-denomination churches only the senior pastor is officially ordained. Sometimes the associate or youth pastors are still working on getting ordained. The youth pastor at my church was at the church for about 2 1/2 years before he was officially ordained and couldn't perform wedding ceremonies until he was.
Another option would be to do a google or switchboard.com search for "wedding officiants" in your area.
Others that can perform weddings outside of pastors are:
Justice of the peace
Magistrate (which in some areas is the same as a JOP)
Judge
Mayor
Licensed wedding officiant
I went to a wedding where they had a Michigan Supreme Court Justice do the ceremony (which is rare, they are still considered a judge), but they were both elected officials.
Anonymous
Relax, you have plenty of time to find a pastor. Likely one of the other pastors will take on your wedding if they can. If not, officiants are a dime a dozen. You can find them through word of mouth, Yellowpages, online or newspaper classifieds, advertising, or anyone you know (18+) can get ordained online for $10 and they can perform your ceremony.
Anonymous
It is customary for the other pastor's to take over duties or an interim pastor would be brought in. I would wait a week and then call the church and inquire about it.