History in Jos as church conducts mass wedding for 52 couples

Jos, the Plateau State capital, witnessed an unusual event last Sunday as a Catholic church joined 52 men with 52 women in a mass wedding ceremony involving an unprecedented number of couples. 

St. Moses Parish of the Catholic Church located in Tudunwada, Jos North Local Government Area, Plateau State, facilitated the tying of nuptial knots by the love birds who took turns to take marriage oaths before they were formally joined in holy matrimony.

The mass wedding was the first of its kind not only in Jos but the entire Plateau State. Of course, there had been mass weddings before that day, but none of them involved more than 20 couples at a time. The ring road that passes through Tudunwada community became almost impassable for motorists as the community where St. Moses Catholic Church was located witnessed the biggest crowd in its history. The road witnessed the most hectic traffic congestion ever as both the celebrants and their guests and relations as well as other road users struggled to wriggle their ways out of the snarl. Ironically, many of the new couples were happy that their wedding could account for so much traffic congestion.

Interestingly, all the couples had been married in the traditional way and most of them had lived together in marriage for years. Many of them had even raised children and were looking forward to their grandchildren. But they felt that their lives were not complete because they had all along shut Jesus Christ out of their marriage. Even in the church, there was a limit beyond which they could not rise because as far as the church was concerned, they were not officially married. Even the larger society mocked them, hence their resolve to take their marriage oaths before the congregation.

It was observed that many of them could not arrange for white garment wedding before they began to raise children due to their poor economic conditions. Because they could not afford the cost of church wedding, the husbands and wives agreed to go ahead to raise children while praying for the day they would have enough savings for church marriage.

One of the couples identified simply as Mr and Mrs Samuel, said: “As Christians, for everything we do in life, we ask God to take control of our plan. Ours is to have the plan, it is God that executes it. We also believe that God’s time is the best. We might have had it in mind to confirm our marriage all this while, but that did not come to be until today. So, we believe that this day is the day chosen by God for our church wedding.

“It is all for good because even without coming before God in marriage, God has been with us. God has blessed us with children. God gave us boys and girls, and we consider that as a huge blessing in our lives.”

Another couple, Mr and Mrs David, said: “All fingers created by God are not equal. Organising a church marriage in this modern life is not easy. But you must get married at the ripe age irrespective of your economic situation. So after our traditional marriage, we decided to postpone the church wedding pending when we would have sustainable income to sponsor our wedding.

“But we appreciate God for sparing our lives till today to make our plan real. Some were not lucky to get to this day, so this wedding is a celebration of our married life. It is about celebrating God for the number of children He has blessed us with. It is also a thanksgiving to God for our lives.”

Mr and Mrs Stephen: “It was a burden on our heads that we were not able to have our marriage confirmed by God. We feel so relieved today that we have taken that burden off our heads.”

According to the Parish Priest of St. Moses Catholic Church, “the essence of marriage is for a couple to live happily. These couples have had happiness in abundance in their lives since they have been together. They are happy and contented irrespective of their weak financial positions.

“So, marriage is not about money or expensive marriage ceremony. It is all about the couple being happy and contented with where God has placed them in life. So I see their holy sacrament today as a celebration of happy life, happy couples and happy family.”

Interestingly, some of the couples had to wait for their children to sponsor their weddings. They had struggled to train their children only for the children to grow up and realize that their parents’ marriage rites were not completed. It became a challenge to them. To them, their parents must have sacrificed the money they would have used for marriage to pay their school fees and feed them. So when the children discovered this, they picked up the challenge to pay their parents back by making sure their marriage rites were performed. The church has the record of members who need to complete their marriage rites. So it decided to set a date for such members. The chosen date was October 11, 2015.

Due to the importance the Catholic Church attaches to marriage, the oath is often conducted by the Archbishop himself. So on that fateful day, the Catholic Archbishop of Jos, His Grace, Bishop Ignatius Kaigama, was there in person to officiate. When it came to taking marriage oaths, he asked all the 52 couples to repeat some words after him, and they all did. The couples took the oath in chorus, exchanged the marriage rings at the same time and later signed the marriage certificates under the watch of the Archbishop.

Bishop Kaigama, who is the President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, said: “The Catholic Church will not relent in its support of procreation in the country, against the ideology of some societies campaigning against it. The 52 couples joined today is an unprecedented number in the growth of the family of Christ and the diocese. The sacrament of marriage also witnessed alongside the sacrament of confirmation of 217 soldiers of Christ.”