YAMHILL COUNTY MARRIAGE COVENANT
Signed April 11, 1999

Our concern as area clergy and licensed marriage officiates, is to promote fruitful, faithful, lasting marriages under God and to establish spiritually healthy families. Since nearly 75% 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 equip and enrich marriages and to significantly reduce the divorce rate in the Yamhill County congregations.

We acknowledge our present efforts in marriage preparation, maintenance and repair have been largely inadequate, and we accept, as clergy, the responsibility to raise the level of commitment in those we marry and those married couples who look to us for spiritual instruction. We believe that couples who seriously participate in premarital testing and counseling will have a better understanding of what a successful marriage involves. We also believe that an increased commitment to marriage preparation will result in the reduction of failing and failed marriages.

Therefore, as clergy and licensed marriage officiates, we believe that it is our responsibility to encourage couples to set aside time for marriage preparation. We acknowledge that a wedding is for a day, while a marriage is for a lifetime.

Therefore:

1. We will normally require a minimum of four months of preparation; a minimum of three to four counseling sessions, utilizing both Scripture and a pre-marital inventory; and encourage participation in a faith community.
2. We will encourage participation in premarital classes and retreats such as a faith-based Engage Encounter, congregation-sponsored pre-marriage retreats/workshops or similar intensive educational and spiritual experiences. Participation in these may be in lieu of some of the required counseling (#1, above).
3. We will encourage two post-marital counseling sessions with clergy or a mentor couple within the first year of marriage.
4. We will create a support system of couples whose marriages have successfully weathered life's challenges to assist with troubled marriage.
5. We will affirm God's intentions for lasting marriages, we will continue to extend a witness of God's grace and forgiveness to those who are separated or divorced. We will seek to establish support systems for blended families.
6. We will cooperate with other congregations and organizations to share resources and create a positive climate in which marriages are helped to succeed.

Covenant

I commit to seek the endorsement of these minimum standards by my congregation and to encourage others to do so, for the Glory of God and the good of our whole community.