Pre Marriage Course

[deiseach]

It is essential, especially in inter–church marriages, to discuss in good time all the implications of marriage with each other and with the clergy.

There was no mention of any requirement to do a pre-marriage course when I got married, from either side of the fence. I mentioned to the priest who was the co-celebrant and he said I had just missed the one in his parish for that year and not to worry about it.

I think it would have been nice to have done it, if only to meet other couples and have a powwow about our hopes and fears. Would I have paid the equivalent of €125 for it? I doubt it, although given I didn't mind having to fork out £60 for the privilege of the vicar of the parish we lived in - not, please note, the one we got married in - to announce in church that we were free to marry, I might have done.

[Rois]

Of topic a little(don't shoot me), but is it only the Catholic Church that requires a pre-marriage course?


I assume most other faiths have similar courses/classes whether there is a fee or not I don't know.

Presbyterians definitely have the courses over a number of weeks - my colleague takes the budgeting/financial session for his "church". 

[JohnDenver]

Of topic a little(don't shoot me), but is it only the Catholic Church that requires a pre-marriage course?


I assume most other faiths have similar courses/classes whether there is a fee or not I don't know.

Presbyterians definitely have the courses over a number of weeks - my colleague takes the budgeting/financial session for his "church".

Any special modules for keeping your land / money out of Catholic hands? 

[redzone]

Presbyterian church in our town put up a big white board at the back of the church every year with the names of who contributed the most money. Highest first and work your way down. Every church goers name is on it

[Hardy]

Presbyterian church in our town put up a big white board at the back of the church every year with the names of who contributed the most money. Highest first and work your way down. Every church goers name is on it

The were doing that in my (Catholic) parish up home until a few years ago at least (maybe still for all I know). Not a whiteboard - priest read out all donations for Easter Dues.

[imtommygunn]

Of topic a little(don't shoot me), but is it only the Catholic Church that requires a pre-marriage course?


I assume most other faiths have similar courses/classes whether there is a fee or not I don't know.

Presbyterians definitely have the courses over a number of weeks - my colleague takes the budgeting/financial session for his "church".

I think I have heard of people on something between 4-8 weeks of pre marriage courses in the presbyterian church. GFees imagine what a free P would have to do!!

Once our priest read out a spiritual accountancy of our parish. It was the most he was ever listened to!

[Farrandeelin]

Must say it wasn't as bad as a lot on here were making it out to be.

I admit I thought that it would take them ages to go through everything in the book. However, they only did bits and pieces of it. The 3 facilitators were very nice and seemed to be more Joe Soaps than Holy Joes. We got our marriage candles because we did it on Valentines Weekend.

Just letting the OP know how mine was.

[WeeDonns]

We did this on Friday/Saturday. It wasn't that bad and I suppose did no harm to get us thinking about some topics.
The two ladies that took it were very nice and were happy to talk about modern family make ups and openly criticized how the Church had viewed some subjects in the past.
We felt they didn't dwell on some topics for too long as they didn't want a debate, which suited us as they rushed through it on the Saturday and had us out after 3pm. It could have all been done on 1 day without all the Tea & lunch breaks.