The
Man, facing the woman and taking her right hand in his, says
In the Name of God, I,
N., take you, N., to be my wife, to
have and to hold from
this day forward, for better for worse,
for richer for poorer, in
sickness and in health, to love and to
cherish, until we are
parted by death. This is my solemn vow.
Then
they loose their hands, and the Woman, still facing the man, takes
his
right hand in hers, and says
In the Name of God, I,
N., take you, N., to be my husband,
to have and to hold from
this day forward, for better for
worse, for richer for
poorer, in sickness and in health, to love
and to cherish, until we
are parted by death. This is my
solemn vow.
Before
the Book of Common Prayer
While these traditional wedding vows come from a protestant book, if you look deeper, you’ll find much of it can be found in Catholic medieval rites like the Sarum marriage liturgy which was written in Latin (except for the vows). The thing that makes the ceremony outlined in the Book of Common Prayer stand out is that it was the first to be written totally in English.
While the Book of Common Prayer describes Christian
marriage as a solemn and public covenant between a man and a woman in the
presence of God, the most common change in these traditional wedding vows these
days is to leave off “In the Name of God.”