Ordained as a minister in NYC?

January 3, 2007 11:09 AM

How does one get ordained as a minister in NYC, so that they can perform legally binding weddings?
posted by skwm to law & government (12 comments total)

http://www.themonastery.org/
posted by phoenixy at 11:14 AM on January 3, 2007

The most common way is to take 84-90 hours of graduate theology and ministry classes, earn your Master of Divinity degree from an accredited seminary, pass your supervised ministry internships, and be recognized by the denomination of your choice as competent for ministry and therefore a candidate for ordination. That's how I went about it, anyway.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:17 AM on January 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Previously.
posted by theiconoclast31 at 11:17 AM on January 3, 2007

Generally the easiest way (assuming you don't care about theology) is to go to some ordination mill like the Universal Life Church and pay up. You can find info their on the process of getting approved to perform weddings: this generally involves filing some paperwork with a government body. The specific rules may require you to file with state and/or local government, and will also cost you money. Here's the first thing google spit out at me. Don't just trust the internet, call the appropriate government body and ask them about the specific rules. They will have dealt with the question before. If you want to perform weddings elsewhere you will probably have to file with the appropriate authorities there.
posted by nanojath at 11:18 AM on January 3, 2007

Oops, looks like the link I meant was this one: http://www.ulchq.com/

But the other one will probably work too.
posted by phoenixy at 11:19 AM on January 3, 2007

I'm not against Pater's way, incidentally - it's how my Dad did it, after all. But I assume since you're asking Metafilter you probably don't care about an orthodox approach to ordination.
posted by nanojath at 11:20 AM on January 3, 2007

Definitely call the appropriate government body; when I researched this for my own wedding, there were strict requirements about who could perform weddings in New York, most of which required the officiant to have a house of worship and members of his or her church. This was a while ago, and the laws may have changed.
posted by Kim Reed at 11:22 AM on January 3, 2007

I went for this a while ago as an ordaned ULC minister.

The short answer is you can't if you're ULC, and it's probably unconstitutional, but no one cares. The PDF of the pertinent ruling is here_PDF.

If you're not ULC, then read the Officiant registration page and fill out the fill out and submit the officiant registration form.
posted by Xoder at 11:24 AM on January 3, 2007

Yeah - what Xoder said - you cannot use a ULC ordination to perform marraiges in NYC.. you CAN however use a ULC ordination to be married in NY State (or at least you could when I was married 10yrs ago).
(and, if you really want to, go to PA. I did a wedding there, and it was the easiest I've ever done... the witnesses didn't even need to sign)
posted by niteHawk at 11:57 AM on January 3, 2007

my friend's wedding last summer was performed by his father, who got the county to name him a justice of the peace for one day, so that it would be a legal marriage.

now, this was in a small jurisdiction, and he was a lawyer and member of the local bar association, so it may not be as easy as that for any joe off the street in NYC. but it's another avenue to consider. i wouldn't know how to go about doing it, though.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 12:47 PM on January 3, 2007

niteHawk: "... you CAN however use a ULC ordination to be married in NY State (or at least you could when I was married 10yrs ago)."

And you could when I married my friends around this time last year. [Self-link alert] Here's the ceremony I wrote up for them.
posted by Xoder at 1:07 PM on January 3, 2007

UPDATE: ULC Ministers can now marry in NYC.

Article now archived in pay land. Maybe this will work?
posted by Xoder at 12:46 PM on September 10, 2007