Emmanuel Nlewedum, Port Harcourt
The Gateway International Church, GIC, has explained why they organised a mass wedding for 24 couples in Rivers State during last Sunday’s service.
Founder and Lead Pastor of the Church, George Izunwa said the mass wedding was to help the couples to be in communion with the church and in furtherance of its ecclesiastical duty and injunction by God to assist one another.
Izunwa explained that the essence of the mass weddings was to assist the couples, both members and even non-members, especially those who could not raise money for their marriage do the needful.
He added that the mass wedding was also aimed at discouraging people, especially Christians from cohabitating together as husbands and wives without proper marriage.
The Pastor in-charge of Family Life Department in the church, Pastor Mrs. Tariah Ojoko said the Mass weddings was organised to help some church members and non members who have been co- habiting for a long time without properly getting married or legitimately married to each other.
Mrs. Ojoko explained that mass weddings for couples is an annual event in the church to assist members and non-members get married legitimately.
She explained that, the church usually take it upon itself to meet parents of the both couples and bargain on the dowries, and that after bargaining, the church through the Family Life Department goes further to pay for the dowries before joining the couples.
She said what the church did was inline with the marriage act, and that at the end of the marriage ceremony, couples were issued with married certificates, explaining that all 24 couples that wedded last Sunday November 24, 2024 were in agreement with the church.
Mrs Ojoko explained that church spent over N3 million to pay dowries for the couples, and another huge sum to organize a wedding reception for them and their in-laws, relations and friends.
According to her, “Some of the couples that were wedded are already old in marriage without wedding, with children who have graduated from Universities, but had no money to formalize their marriages and or to pay dowries.”
She advised the couples to see the wedding ceremony as a new beginning, while urging them to go out there, dominate and also make impact on the lives of others by being a blessing to other families.
Mrs. Ojoko commended the Lead Pastor of the Church, George Izunwa for sustaining the gesture in the past ten years. “The Church has been on with the Mass weddings for over 10 years. The church don’t just wed couples, but they also take care of their wedding gowns, rings, dowries, receptions and every other thing that is required for a successful wedding ceremony. God who started the program would also sustain it,” she said.
Responding on behalf of the newly wedded couples, Mr Okechuwu Idika expressed joy and gratitude to the church leadership, especially the Lead Pastor, George Izunwa for organizing such an amazing Mass weddings for them.
Okechuwu who explained that over the years, he has been thinking on how to raise the funds for his wedding, said the church made everything very simple and easy for them that could not raise enough money to do weddings. He added that Izunwa and the church has fulfilled his dreams and expectations.
He therefore promised to be committed to kingdom service even as he urged the church to extend same gestures to other indigent members.
In a similar development, the gateway international church women also did a thanksgiving to mark end of the gateway women convention that comes every November.
The theme of this year’s gateway women convention was, “Woman Emerge,” featuring lectures, dramas and cultural display to mark end of the convention.
