BY LAEL CAESAR
BY STEPHEN CHAVEZ
Rearna Ackord is not an Adventist, but she is single. The 22-year-old recently told the London
Sun that she has chosen a church for her wedding, a $1,700 gown, the menu for the reception, even the music for her walk down the aisle. What she doesn’t have—yet—is a fiancé.
Ackord, who spent six months planning the smallest details of her wedding, says, “Every girl grows up dreaming of their day; I’m just taking it one step further than most and making those dreams a reality.”
1 Indeed, thanks to the counsel of no less an authority than God Himself, who said, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Gen. 2:18), most people harbor the desire to find a life partner and soul mate, marry, and, with or without children, live happily ever after.
But what happens if your dreams aren’t matched by reality? What happens if what’s supposed to be a lifelong commitment is cut short by divorce or death?
As much as most of us agree that marriage is God’s original ideal for men and women, the fact remains that a surprisingly high percentage of people aren’t living that ideal. In the United States unmarried households outnumber married households by more than 600,000 (50.2 percent unmarried households versus 49.8 percent married households).
2 So how do singles, who are Adventist, see themselves in relationship to the church? And what can the church do, if anything, to serve the needs of those who are unmarried or never married?
Over several weeks I spoke to people who are single (female and male) and two married women, all of whom spoke on the record, but on the condition of remaining anonymous so they could be completely candid in their responses. They range in age from their 20s to 60s and are represented by pseudonyms in this article. I also spoke on the record to Claudio and Pamela Consuegra, directors of the Family Ministries Department of the North American Division..
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* Article referenced from Adventist Review
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