A Chinese and English ceremony in one
Dongyun and Mun Sing
When Dongyun and Mun Sing moved into the parish of Walworth, London, they had dreamed of getting married in an English church.
When they met with St Christopher’s church Curate Fr Andrew Moughtin-Mumby, he reassured them that they were very welcome to be married in church and offered to help in any way he could.
The couple were surprised and delighted when Fr Andrew suggested incorporating Chinese symbolism, Mandarin readings and Chinese translations into the wedding ceremony.
“Dongyun and Mun Sing assumed that they had to have a fully English wedding so I had to convince them that our church would be pleased to represent their Chinese heritage in the service. With both British and Chinese guests, it made sense to have translators and Bible readings in both languages,” said Fr Andrew.
We had seen English weddings in movies back home in China, and we regarded the church wedding as a very Holy thing, but weren’t sure that we could have one because we didn’t belong to a church.
Find out more about Chinese marriage symbolism at this wedding.
“All this made the wedding day wonderful for us and really impressed our Chinese and British guests,” said Dongyun. “Father Andrew had given us so much support, advice and ideas. He went to a lot of trouble to make it a special day.”