Tag Archives: perform marriage

Get Ordained to Officiate a Wedding, We do all the paperwork

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Get ordained become a minister

Certificate of Ordination from our church

Wedding season is here!  Get ordained in time to officiate marriages, become a wedding officiant today. We take care of all the legal paperwork.

The Esoteric Interfaith Church, Inc. has always assisted our ordained ministers get their paperwork in line so they are able to officiate a wedding in any US State. Some States require more than the signed Certificate of Ordination from us, they require you to register first with them before you can perform the marriage.

We help you with all required paperwork.   Nevada, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Hawaii, Virginia and cities like New York City and Washington, D.C. require extra paperwork before the minister is allowed to officiate weddings. There are other “picky” states, too, and we help you with all of them.  Our ministers and rabbis are able to legally officiate weddings in all 50 States.

For example, we are notarizing a special Nevada affidavit to solemnize marriage for one of our ordained ministers. [Our Seminary also granted him a PhD in Religious Studies and Doctor of Divinity, but you don’t need a religious degree to legally perform a wedding.  All you need is your Certificate of Ordination such as those we give to those we ordain.]

In Nevada, the minister who wants to perform a wedding there has to fill out extra paperwork and get a notarized affidavit from us.   He was ordained as a minister and earned not only his PhD in Theology degree here, but also a Doctor of Divinity years ago. But now he wants to do weddings. So we got him all set up.

Many ministers also need to be what’s called a “visiting minister” when they officiate an out-of-state wedding. We also help with that paperwork. We just got an ordained minister in Maryland all squared away with Virginia because he will be performing a marriage as a visiting minister. We contacted the court directly, found out exactly what was needed to show the Clerk of the Court in Virginia, which is a Letter of Good Standing from us on church letterhead, copy of his credentials from us, etc.

How to Register as an Ordained Minister to Officiate Weddings in Nevada

Clark County Nevada and Washoe County both have the paperwork you need right online.  All you have to do is fill in the blanks, then print it out. We will send you the link, if you can’t find it. One page however is for us, the church that ordains you. It’s called the Affidavit of Authority to Solemnize Marriages in Nevada. The church fills our page out, gets it notarized and sends to you to submit all at once with the pages you fill out.

Get Ordained with a nationwide church that supports you

If you are thinking about getting ordained, starting your own church or wedding chapel, setting up a pastoral / spiritual counseling or healing practice, we have been helping clergy (ministers, rabbis, chaplains, priests) with their paperwork for 26 years, and have been here online since 1999.

Become an Ordained Minister in New York City

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Captain Arnold ordained chaplain performs a wedding on board a ship in New York City harbor

Captain Arnold ordained chaplain performs a wedding on board a ship in New York City harbor

To officiate a wedding within New York City limits requires the minister / rabbi / clergy-member to register with the New York City Clerk’s Office.   Besides the Certificate of Ordination you receive from us, you need two pieces of additional paperwork to become an ordained minister in NYC — to be able register with the Clerk’s Office. We have been helping ministers / clergy get registered with NYC Clerk’s Office for almost two decades. It’s not easy, but it’s not difficult and at least it’s not expensive.

To register with NYC Clerk’s Office, you need three items, all of which we supply:

1. Your Certificate of Ordination as a minister, rabbi or other clergy title, which you get by applying here.
2. a copy of our official Articles of Incorporation (which we scan and email to you)
3. a letter stating you are in good standing with our church / religious organization.

Item 1, your Certificate of Ordination with a raised seal is sent thru the mail and takes about three days to receive.

Item 2 is sent by email attachment, our church’s Articles of Incorporation. It is two pages long.

Item 3 is the Letter of Good Standing, which we scan and email to you or mail with your Certificate of Ordination.

Within the last year alone we have helped around a dozen people we’ve ordained register with the NYC Clerk’s Office.  Over the years we’ve helped well over a hundred. Two of them offer marriage services on tourist boats in New York City harbor, one of our ordained chaplains does them “by land, sea or air”.   Those boat weddings are very romantic.  If you visit our Practitioners Directory (aka our Minister Directory) you will see Captain Arnold, and his website link full of  colorful photos of his wedding ministry  / wedding chapel activities. That’s him pictured above recently officiating a beautiful Interfaith wedding on a boat.

Get Ordained to Perform a Marriage

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Perform a wedding, Become an ordained minister, rabbiPerhaps the most common reason people come to us online for ordination is because they have been asked to perform a marriage.  A relative or close friend, even co-workers nowadays ask someone special in their lives to officiate their wedding. Now with the June wedding season approaching we are ordaining more ministers than usual. Some want to start their own pastoral counseling practice, others want to set up a wedding chapel, but most have been asked to perform a marriage. It used to be the bride and groom couldn’t pick a family member or best friend to officiate their big day. Couples had to find a member of the institutionalized clergy who was willing to marry them. Those were frustrating times, but they are over. Now in all 50 states any person asked to officiate a wedding can become an ordained minister or rabbi. Our non-denominational interfaith seminary ordains people for this reason all the time, about two per week. And ordination is quick and easy — only 3 steps. 1.  Fill out the online application here. 2.  Write a one or two page spiritual history (email format is fine) telling the story of religion and spirituality (they are different) in  your life from childhood to present. 3.  Pay the one-time tuition of $150. There are no annual renewal fees of any kind, ordination is good for your lifetime. (Once you submit the application you will be directed to a PayPal tuition page). All the requirements and minister / rabbi title choices on our Ordination Requirements Page. For legal FAQ’s see here. Some counties and cities require extra paperwork before you can officiate a marriage in their jurisdiction but we help you will all of that.  Our ministers and clergy are officiating weddings all the time in all 50 states. We help ministers with the paperwork so they can perform marriages even inside picky New York City and the very jump-thru-hoops state of Virginia. Ohio, Wisconsin, Nevada and Hawaii just to name a few require extra paperwork and it’s no problem. We have even done it on the fly for someone about to officiate a wedding the very next day.  One time we even had to scan and email the Certificate of Ordination to the new minister in California because the wedding was the next morning and FedEx wouldn’t make it! After the ordination we will even help you fill out the marriage license.  The bride and groom will get the license and bring it to you on the wedding day. You simply fill out the minister portion on the license where it asks who you are ordained by, your minister title, etc.  We help you with all that. Recently we helped a minister fill out the marriage license by using cellphone pictures and text messages! Used to be “in the old days” the minister would call us, then it went to faxing questions, followed by emails and now we can even help you out by texting! If you have any questions feel free to ask below or send us an email at seminary at northernway.org