Mumbai: Dadar church hosted first wedding in 8 months

Steffi Zefferino Fernandes and her husband Joannes Henry Fernandes at their wedding

Ever since Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray allowed religious places to reopen last month-with SOPs and safety protocols in place-the Sunday mass or the Holy Eucharist conducted at churches, has resumed. But for the first time in almost eight months, Dadar's Our Lady of Salvation church played host to a wedding earlier this week.

The wedding between Steffi Zefferino Fernandes and her husband Joannes Fernandes on December 8 was a small but intimate affair, with not more than 40 people attending it, mostly family members. Speaking with mid-day, Steffi said: "There was no shifting or shuffling of dates for our wedding. It was fixed to be on December 8 and that is when it was held. When we were planning the wedding last month and had met the priest to discuss the possibility of a pre-nuptial mass, it seemed unlikely that a full-fledged wedding would be allowed inside church, let alone with family members and with mass taking place since religious places were not open at the time. But mysteriously, this changed mid-November when religious places were allowed to reopen."

Steffi and her husband Jonas became the first couple in their parish to get married at the church after the easing of lockdown rules; they also were the first couple to receive Holy Communion as well as a wedding mass. "It is like a blessing that we were the first couple from our parish to have a proper wedding along with our respective family members at the church. Many couples who got married at church before us weren't able to avail the sacrament of Eucharist during the past nine months, but my husband and I feel truly blessed to have availed it during our wedding ceremony."

Judith Monteiro, a fellow parishioner, who was attending the wedding ceremony from the groom's side, said, "Nothing can be more special for the couple and their loved ones than to have their wedding blessed in church during the Holy Mass. Their wedding was like a beautiful beginning to the new normal; our daily food for the soul, which is the Holy Communion, had been missing. Things now feel complete and normal."

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