In my line of work, I came across a marriage license from Texas and noticed that the individual who performed the ceremony at an unusual morning time on a Saturday signed his name as "elder."

Mormon wedding? [From what I have learned here, I thought that they could be one of many assembly-line couples at a Temple who drew the short straw for early on a Saturday morning...?] Or maybe in the social hall/b-ball court of the local meeting house??

Can those white-shirted, bicycle-riding young men who knock on doors perform marraiges? They are "elders" too, right?

Elder refers to missionaries or senior members of the clergy, but does not give them legal license to wed people. It's a silly designation to make them sound more dignified I guess. I'm a woman so I'm not sure of the hierarchy there. I was married in a temple and I don't remember the title of the person who did it, but we got a legal marriage certificate out of the ceremony. Then my bishop did a ring ceremony for us afterward but that was just so my non member dad could walk me down the aisle and all the other nonmembers could feel they were a part of that as well. Those boys on bikes almost certainly can't wed people unless they happen to have a license to do so which I hear isn't very hard to get.

>> Elder refers to missionaries or senior members of the clergy, but does not give them legal license to wed people. <<

I was a missionary from 83-85 and we all had a ministerial certificate which allowed us to perform marriages. I never did one and don't know anyone that did, but unless they changed it, missionaries can perform weddings. Once you are released from being a missionary, you lose that certificate.

A run of the mill "elder" at church can't, but the Bishop can.

And of course anyone can get a certificate online these days, I have one and have done many marriages for friends and relatives.

Also, the only legal part of marriage is the license. The legality of marriage has nothing to do with religion.

For few bucks, you too can marry people.


https://www.themonastery.org/landing/get-ordained?keyword=marriage%20officiant%20license&msclkid=8175d06174a11aaf03a9b20d466c896c

You can get one free here: https://dudeism.com/ordination/

Elder is not exclusive to Mormons, and I have seen some people carry that title here and there.

I think the term is sometimes used in some Protestant denominations to designate someone as sort of a "board member" but not a clergy person. The Disciples of Christ church next door to me has both men and women as "elders." They are usually older people, not a pimple-faced youth among them.

I think missionaries (elders) can perform a marriage, but they have to have all types of permission from church leaders (mission president, bishop etc). In areas where the church is developing, the church probably encourages them to get people married.

Apparently, my mission prez gave explicit orders for no one (elders) to be performing marriages or baptizing without the baptismal checklist and 3 days later some elders did all married several couples and baptizing them in a community swimming pool. One was immediately sent home and the other finished his mission as a "third leg" companion- he was always assigned to a set of zone leaders.

Keep in mind that not just missionaries are referred to by the title of Elder.

General authorities (except the FP) are also referred to as Elder So-and so of the council of the 12, or Elder Whats-his-name of the First (or second, or whatever) quorum of seventies.

One of my occupations is performing marriages. To do so I became an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church. I have performed legal marriages in Arizona and California
I am not sure whether Mormon Elders fall into this catagory or not!

I have my uncle's missionary manual from the 40s. It details how to perform a wedding.

In the past in some areas missionaries were also branch presidents. Couple that with lack of temples and they very well could have performed weddings.

Any Melchizedek priesthood holder has Mormon "authority" to perform a marriage. But they cannot do it without permission from waaaay above, and I don't think the permission would be... You know. Bishops, on the other hand, can perform weddings, but it's under kind of strict rules--must be conducted in the church, but I think it can't be done in the chapel; they conduct the wedding normally in the Relief Society room, or the comically named "cultural hall" (read: "gym"). I don't think they're even allowed to do it in a place like on the beach, or at some paid venue.

Another thing that is very important: The bishop is under instruction to shame or even insult the couple over not having it done in the temple. When I worked in Yakima, WA, one of my inactive LDS co-workers married a woman from among the goyim. It was performed in a chapel in Ellensburg. The next day all the non-Mormons were aghast at several things, but the biggie was why the bishop had to publicly insult the couple for not having chosen to marry in the temple. They asked me, a guy who had just left the church, why he did that, and I gave them the best answer I could. I now had a bit of an audience of 5-6 people listening in, so there were more questions. One said that it was weird how the bishop did EVERYthing--the introduction and welcoming, the invocation, the wedding, followed by a short sermon that included a the insulting comments, and then the closing prayer. It was very no-frills, another thing that they found off-putting. And then one of them asked, "Why did the bishop fold his arms during the prayer? He folded them tightly way up high on his chest." That takes a lot of explaining, and there is no good answer; folding your arms for a prayer is just plain weird.*

*I mistakenly accepted my sister's invitation to Easter dinner, where I was told I "might have to leave" when I contradicted my uninformed BIL that, no, Bided didn't willy-nilly raise the price of gas because no head of state in any country has control over the prices of commodities, be it petrol or pork bellies. He was really offended. I doubt that I will attend anything else at her house. Anyway,... About the praying: Most of those there were LDS, albeit not all were as over-the-top as my own sister. They all folded their arms when the prayer was given, and I joked about it afterwards by saying, is folding your arms during a prayer still a thing? Now that I am a non-member, I can see the weirdness in much of what Mormons say in a prayer, like, "Please bless this food that it will strengthen and nourish our bodies," which seems like a last-ditch plea to protect oneself from under-cooked turkey. That phrase is even more weird when used at something like an ice cream social. But I don't even get why you say a prayer over food in the first place. My sister and her husband (who has also left the church, but made by my sister to put on a big show so that she won't be embarrassed by him acting like a non-member) always pray with distinct and carefully enunciated wording. They don't cop the normal whispy prayer voice, but in their well enunciated way, always with furrowed brow.

I've seen a couple of male students with the first name of, "Elder" who were born in Central America. I found it curious, and wondered if their families had contact with Mormon missionaries at some point (the families were not Mormon.) It would be funny if the missionaries had introduced themselves as, "Elder So-and-So," and the families had just assumed that Elder was a popular first name.