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June is here and Philadelphia’s churches are busting out all over. On any given Saturday this month, you can see crowds of well-dressed people gathered at their doors and smiling couples striding down their steps.

But inside some local houses of worship, the traditional wedding ceremony is unlike any other. I recently made a visit to the Arch Street Friends’ Meeting House, where docent Carolyn Evans talked to me about the Quaker marriage ceremony. As you may know, Quakers do not have clergy; the central tenet of their faith is that God is in everyone. So how do they manage to tie the knot without a priest or minister?

The answer is that Quaker couples and their guests officiate the marriage together, or, in the Friends’ phrase: “under the care of their meeting.” Before the actual ceremony, a Quaker couple will designate close friends and members of their meeting to ask them questions about their partnership, essentially serving as marriage counseling. These supporters are part of the assembled meeting on the day of the wedding, who begin the ceremony in silent “expectant waiting.”

The silence is usually broken by the couple themselves, who face each other and exchange vows and rings. Next, a person of their choosing reads a large, oversized marriage certificate, which contains their names, vows, and space for the wedding guests to sign. The couple’s wedding party brings out a table, where the certificate is placed for guests to sign”"all guests, Quakers, non-Quakers, men, women, adults, and children are expected to sign. Next is a period when family and friends of the couple are invited to stand and share their thoughts about the couple in particular, or marriage and love in general.

It’s worth noting that no one gives the bride away”"she stands on her own, just like the groom. The many community-based, egalitarian aspects of the wedding ritual reflect the overall Quaker philosophy, which was of course the faith of Pennsylvania’s founder William Penn and of many early migrants to the colony. If you want to learn more about the Society of Friends (which is the official name for the Quaker denomination), check out the Arch Street Meeting House. Warm and welcoming guides can answer your questions about the modern faith, and a small exhibit room details the role of Quakers in shaping the city and the colony’s history.

Want some more info on exploring Historic Philadelphia? Sure you do. Visit www.gophila.com/history for a plethora of places to see and things to do.

Historic Philadelphia
www.gophila.com/history

Arch Street Meeting House
www.archstreetfriends.org