Finding a wedding officiant when not a sangha member

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Verbify
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2012 4:05 pm

Finding a wedding officiant when not a sangha member

Post by Verbify »

I am a life-long practitioner in the Theravada tradition. As I grew up in rural Wyoming, my sangha was my family (the family that meditates together...). After moving to Denver years ago, I continued my practice in solitary as the Theravadin community typically revolved around cultural communities. The Thai temple, for example, offered a translator for teaching but was so connected and intertwined in the thai communtiy that i never felt fully comfortable. While I was very fortunate to have found a meditation teacher (a former respected monk) but he has long ago left town back to Thailand.

My problem now is that The policial situation has changed and i anticipate marrying my partner and we long for a monastic officiant. As I search the Internet, there's no lack of "new agey" officiants that list Buddhist ceremonies but I'd really like taking refuge to be a part of our ceremony. While I know none of this is a necessity and we can clearly do this on our own with any wedding officiant, I'd like one that is at minimum a practicing Buddhist teacher if not a monastic. My lack of sangha affiliation, however, seems to be a deterrent. The local zen center indicated that its resident teacher would happily conduct a wedding for any member of its sangha, which I am not.

Before I search further, I'm hoping members here may offer some advice on which communities/teachers may be open to the idea. The great irony is that I live so close to Boulder, Colorado, a home to a plethora of Buddhist communities and I'm not keen to find rejections based on my lack of membership, my willingness to make dana notwithstanding.

I'd welcome any thoughts. Thank you.
DGA
Former staff member
Posts: 9466
Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2010 5:04 pm

Re: Finding a wedding officiant when not a sangha member

Post by DGA »

PM forthcoming.
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