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The Rev. Dr. Gerald W. (Jerry) Montgomery - Wedding Officiant about me |
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Performing many weddings a year, I often find myself conducting wedding ceremonies in severeal locations far beyond the traditional confines of a church building. In simple terms, I help couples launch their marriages! We do that in churches and chapels, of course, but also in homes, parks, auditoriums, hotels, backyards, restaurants, on ferry boats, sail boats or yachts, and sometimes on trains, horseback or even motorcycles. I often welcome couples into my home for their wedding ceremony when no other place is appropriate or affordable. I've officiated at ceremonies at the top of Seattle's Space Needle, on the beach of a county park north of Everett, in a hillside historic chapel at Tiburon, Califorfnia, overlooking San Francisco bay, in the patio of a neighborhood tavern in Dallas, Texas, and the luxury of a Snoqualmie Falls. Washington, hotel. Ordinarily I meet with a couple to discuss their wedding plans before I accept a wedding. I need to know what they expect and I'm looking for one thing during our conversation: a commitment to establishing a good, long-lasting marriage. I'll bring a planning booklet to the conversation (usually in a Starbucks shop) to facilitate planning the ceremony and to support your other planning and rehearsal efforts. I've built a time-tested collection of liturgical materials from many traditoins including Native American poetry or a reading from a popular children's story, for example. My wedding services are built mainly on traditional Protestant Christian values and traditions. I do not perform 'civil' ceremonies because ministers have no legal authority to do so. If you want a non-religious ceremony, I can recommend several judges. Since I was ordained by the United Church of Chist at University Congregational Church in Seattle in 1984, I have served three churches as a pastor (small suburban, large downtown city, and small rural) as well as serving as a police and fire department chaplain. I've mostly retired as a pastor but continue to work as a chaplain and perform weddings and funeral services in the community. My 'day job' is as president of The Workplace Instgitute, a non-profit organization that provides chaplaincy services and training programs for emergency agency personnel and staff members of businesses. In addition to wedding services for people in the community, frequently I also am invited to conduct funeral services and baptisms. Professionally, my ministry credentials are held by the Pacific Northwest Conference of the United Church of Christ. The International Conference of Police Chaplains and the Federation of Fire Chaplains both have recognized me as a Master Chaplain. I hold two doctoral degrees (one in emergency medical service systems, and the other in counseling and men's issues) as well as a bachelor's degree in journalism and the fine arts. I've written several books and currently am producing a series of training videos for the fire service. My work also has included more than a dozen years as an editor and reporter for several major United States daily newspapers, founding director of the King County, WA, emergency medical service system, system analyst for the Washington State Senate's Ways & Means Committee handling a $45 billion budget, and small business owner.
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The Rev. Dr. Gerald W. (Jerry) Montgomery
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