SWEET HOME COMMUNITY MARRIAGE COVENANT
Signed September 8, 1998

Our concern as area clergy is to promote lasting marriages under God and to establish spiritually healthy families. Since almost 75 percent of all marriages are performed by clergy, we are in a unique position to dramatically affect the marriages and families in our community. We are deeply troubled by our country's epidemic of marital instability and divorce and feel it must be directly addressed by the faith community. Our purpose is to enrich marriages and to significantly reduce the divorce rate in the Sweet Home area.

We accept, as clergy, the responsibility to raise the level of commitment in those we marry by asking them to set aside time for marriage preparation. We believe that couples who seriously participate in well-designed premarital in well-designed premarital instruction will have a better understanding of what marriage involves and that they will reap the benefits of experiencing a stronger marriage and of avoiding a failing marriage. We acknowledge that a wedding is but for a day, while a marriage is for a lifetime. We also believe that we have a responsibility to do all we can to provide ongoing support to strengthen and nourish existing marriages.

What God has joined together, let the faith community of Sweet Home seek to hold together.

Therefore we will:

• Expect at least a four month preparation period between contacting the pastor and the wedding.
• Expect participation in a preparation process to include one or more of the following: mentoring by a seasoned couple; a minimum of five hours of premarital consultation; or attendance at a premarital course, such as a Family Life Conference. Topics covered in the process would include spirituality, communication, conflict resolution, sex, finances, parenting, recreation, in-laws, roles and responsibilities.
• Expect completion of at least one personality and relationship assessment, such as PREPARE, FOCCUS, TJTA, or Myers-Briggs.
• Advise couple to covenant to sexual abstinence until after their wedding ceremony.
• Advise participation in a faith community during the process of preparation for marriage, and continued participation after the wedding for spiritual nurturing.
• Agree to strengthen existing marriages, whether vitalized or troubled, by encouraging participation in retreats, enrichment opportunities, mentoring by mature married couples, and by conferring with a qualified counselor or pastor, as needed.