St. Edward the Confessor Parish P. O. Box 8866 – 21 Brush Hill Road New Fairfield, CT 06812 (203) 746-2200 Fax (203) 746-4856
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St. Edward the Confessor Parish P. O. Box 8866 – 21 Brush Hill Road New Fairfield, CT 06812 (203) 746-2200 Fax (203) 746-4856 Pre-Cana in Saint Edward the Confessor Parish 2013 Congratulations! May God’s fullest blessings be with you during this time as you prepare for your wedding day and your married life. The priests and parish staff of St. Edward are here to assist you so that this time of preparation is as spiritually fruitful for you as possible. Legal Preparation for Marriage 1. In the State of Connecticut you may obtain your marriage license from the town clerk where the marriage will occur or from the town clerk in the Connecticut town where one of the parties to be married resides. 2. Blood tests are no longer needed for the application for a Marriage License. The couple should plan to apply for their license in an adequate time before the wedding. The marriage license is good for 65 days. When you have received the license, bring it to the Parish Office. 3. There are also records which you must obtain for the Church: A. Each Catholic must have a recently issued Baptismal Certificate (no more than six months old). If one of you is Protestant, a Baptismal Certificate is desired if possible. B. Each Catholic must also have a certificate of First Communion and Confirmation if reception of these sacraments is not noted on the Baptismal Certificate. 4. How to obtain the church certificates: A. If any of these sacraments were received at St. Edward, we have your records on file so certificates are not needed. B. If any of these sacraments were received elsewhere, contact the church of Baptism first. Tell them you are getting married and give them your date of birth. When you have received the certificate, check the back of it to see if the dates of the other sacraments are recorded. If not, contact the churches at which you received those sacraments for a certificate. If you are not sure how to contact a church, the office at St. Edward can give you the addresses and phone numbers for churches in the United States. C. If any Catholic party has not received the Sacrament of Confirmation, he/she is strongly urged to do so. The priest or deacon will be happy to give you details about instruction for Confirmation. D. If neither person lives in St. Edward the Confessor Parish, a letter of permission must be obtained from each person’s pastor. G:\FAMILY LIFE\MARRIAGE PREP\Pre-Cana in St. Edwards 2013.doc Page 1 of 1 Spiritual Preparation for Marriage 1. As we receive each sacrament, the Church asks us to spend some time in preparation contemplating the marvelous and loving activity of God in our lives. The preparation for the Sacrament of Marriage is called Pre-Cana. 2. We have our own Pre-Cana Program. A married couple from our Parish in conjunction mentors the engaged couple with the priest or deacon who will officiate at the wedding. This Pre-Cana program has five parts: A. Initial Meeting with a priest or deacon of St. Edward Parish. B. Initial Introductory meeting with Mentor Couple C. Complete online Prepare/Enrich Survey. D. Three additional meetings with the mentor couple in their home. E. A final meeting with the priest or deacon. The Liturgy of Marriage It is important to know that certain days of the year cannot be reserved for weddings. An example is when November 2nd (All Souls Day) falls on a Saturday; a wedding mass cannot be celebrated. Weddings with traditional masses are normally scheduled on Saturday at 10:30 AM or 11:00 AM or 2:00 PM on Saturday afternoon or 2:30 for a ceremony only with no mass. Friday night weddings are also available. Once you have arranged dates and times for the wedding and rehearsal, there are a number of things to be done in preparation for the Marriage Liturgy: 1. The priest or deacon who is to officiate at the ceremony will discuss the details of the liturgy with you and will give you guideline booklet. You select your own readings using the booklet and available readings. The rite is a reflection of your faith, which you want to share with those who attend. Please note, however, that the State of Connecticut requires the use of one of the approved legal forms of the vows. 2. Visiting clergy are welcome at St. Edward. The priests, deacon and staff of St. Edward are happy to help you with the other arrangements for the liturgy. Visiting clergy should be present at the rehearsal. 3. If you know any boys or girls who would like to be altar servers at your wedding, they are welcome. If they are from another parish, they should be at the rehearsal. You should inform the priest at least two weeks prior to the wedding if you are arranging for the altar servers, OR if you wish, the parish will provide altar servers. We ask that the couple give each server a gift of $10. 4. You are encouraged to ask family and friends to read from the Scripture and pray the General Intercessions at your wedding. They should be at the rehearsal to practice the readings. 5. If you are celebrating the Nuptial Mass, you may ask friends or family to present the gifts of bread and wine. 6. If you are celebrating the Nuptial Mass, you may ask Eucharistic Ministers whom you know to help distribute Communion. 7. Our Music Director, Mr. Daniel Kean, will help you make selections for your Wedding Liturgy. You may contact Mr. Kean after any Mass on Sunday morning, or at the following telephone numbers: A. Music Office 203-746-6945 B. Home 860-355-9110 If you so wish to use our music program, there is a fee of $200.00 for the services of Mr. Kean as organist and $175 for Gloria Hudson as cantor. G:\FAMILY LIFE\MARRIAGE PREP\Pre-Cana in St. Edwards 2013.doc Page 2 of 2 8. A cantor or leader of song is needed at the wedding liturgy to help the congregation with their responses. This is not the same as a soloist. The cantor’s job is to lead the congregation in singing those parts of the liturgy which are properly theirs and which are properly sung (e.g. the Responsorial Psalm, Alleluia, Eucharistic Acclamations). Please discuss this with Mr. Kean. 9. You are welcome to have other musician’s play/sing at your wedding. You may make arrangements for this with Mr. Kean. 10. Fees: • $125 Pre-Cana fee due upon registering with our in house program. Made out to St. Edward’s Family Life. Dioceses Pre-Cana is $150 payable online on the diocese website www.bridgeportdiocese.com. • $300 Church fee due two weeks prior to the wedding. Made out to St. Edward’s. • $200 Organist Fee • $175 Cantor Fee • $10 for each Altar Server. 11. Bubbles or the ringing of bells is preferred if the family wishes a tradition of recognition while the couple is leaving the church. Birdseed or flower petals are not to be thrown. We have had several close calls with elderly people and young mothers with infants who were trying to get into the church for Sunday Mass and slipped on birdseed. 12. St. Edward’s is a non-smoking facility. Please ask your guests to refrain from smoking inside the Church building or outside the front doors by the portico. Normally all weddings will be followed by other Church activities so the front door area of our Church needs to be kept clean and safe. 13. All Catholics in the wedding party are urged to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation at some point before the wedding day. Confessions at St. Edward are Saturday afternoon from 3:45 to 4:15 or by appointment. Please call the Parish Office and ask to speak to the priest who is helping prepare for your wedding to make an appointment. If you wish to have confession before or after the rehearsal, please let the priest know so that he can plan for this. 14. Some couples have printed programs for their wedding. The program design and theme should be religious in nature in keeping with the dignity of the Sacrament. If you plan to have a program, please let the priest or deacon review the rough draft with you before you finalize it so that unnecessary complications can be avoided. 15. Outside vendors: you will most likely hire a photographer, a video person and/or limo driver to service your wedding. Please advise them of the following issues: 1) the time of the next parish service after your wedding. We need 30 minutes to set up the Church for the parish mass. Please plan to end picture taking and have the limos leave the Church grounds 30 minutes before the next mass or ceremony. 2) Advise your photographer to check with the priest or deacon before the ceremony for local rules. 3) Instruct your limo driver to park the limo away from the front door of the church. Please only park in front of the church during drop-off and pick- up. 16. Make sure that your limo driver has directions to the church and knows how long it will take to get here. 17. In recent years, “Reality T.V.” has lured couples into using their Wedding ceremonies for entertainment and for commercial purposes. Your Wedding is a Sacrament and the sacredness of its Mass is an obligation! Diocesan Policy does NOT allow any commercial filming of any ceremony in church for entertainment purposes.