Reverend Christina Yanko Officiates Buddhist Weddings at World Pride Toronto 2014

This from Sumeru Books:

Reverend Christina Yanko from the Toronto Buddhist Church was one of the officiants at the mass wedding which took place at World Pride in Toronto recently. I asked her for a bit of info about it and here’s what she told me…

“First there was a big mass ceremony. Each of the officiants were asked to perform a blessing from their religious tradition. We don’t really believe we have any authority to bless people since we ourselves are not perfect, so I simply chanted Sanbujo (as you can see in the picture). Following the mass ceremony, each of the couples had to have their own service where we did the vows, I do’s and paperwork with their witnesses. I performed ten. We had 10 minutes for each one so prior to the day I was informed whom my couples were and consulted with them to find out what they would like. Some wanted to have their own vows, some wanted to just repeat after me, and a couple wanted me to focus on Buddhism within marriage. I tried to tailor things as much as I could.”

Read the rest here.