Wow. Crazy News.

Pa. judge rules wedding by Internet-ordained minister invalid

The Associated Press

YORK, Pa. - A couple who broke up seven months after their wedding vows wondered if the ceremony performed by a friend ordained via the Internet was even valid under state law.

Now a York County judge has ruled that it was not, although a Universal Life Church official hopes to challenge that ruling.

David Cleaver, solicitor for the state Association of Registers of Wills and Clerks of Orphans' Court, said the case is the first of its kind in Pennsylvania, and his organization is advising members not to file such marriages.

State law says those qualified to officiate at marriages are judges, mayors, and the ministers, priests or rabbis of a "regularly established church or congregation."

Judge Maria Musti Cook ruled that Adam Johnston, who performed the Aug. 24, 2006, ceremony at the home of Dorie E. Heyer and Jacob T. Hollerbush, was not a member of the Universal Life Church before he received his ordination.

Johnston testified that he did not have a congregation he met with regularly and did not have a place of worship, Cook wrote in a ruling issued Friday.

Heyer, 21, of Windsor Township, and Hollerbush, 24, of York, said they hope their experience will be of value to others.

Heyer said she agreed such a ceremony did not have legal standing. "It makes a mockery out of the whole marriage system," she said.

The Pennsylvania House is considering legislation that would exclude churches or congregations that offer ordinations by mail or through electronic means.

G. Martin Freeman, Universal Life Church Monastery president, said he hopes to challenge Cook's ruling.

Freeman said the decision to accept some ministers but not others was arbitrary and would violate the constitutional separation of church and state.

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Information from: York Daily Record, http://www.ydr.com