Southern York County Life

‘Man and wife’ via phone

Stewartstown couple wed by Chaplain in Germany

It’s a rare wedding that comes off without at least a minor hitch. When Molly Schnetzka and Ryan Currie decided to get hitched, the hitch in their plans turned out to be Iraq—indirectly. That’s why Molly and Ryan were declared husband and wife over the phone. “I wasn’t sure how it would work,” she said. “I thought it was kind of weird.”

Molly, 22, and Ryan, 30, were engaged Christmas Eve 2003.On Christmas Day she asked her uncle—her mother’s brother—the Rev. Paul Kauffman, if he would marry them.

“She asked her uncle if he’d perform the wedding ceremony because she wanted the same preacher who married her mom and dad,” said Molly’s mother, Lydia Schnetzka of Fawn Grove. Lydia Kauffman and David Schnetzka were married by the Rev. Paul Kauffman in March 1976.

Keeping to family tradition, he was more than happy to marry his niece and her fiance, Lydia Schnetzka said.

Wedding set, minister deployed: The wedding was set for Aug. 14 at the Stewartstown United Methodist Church—the same church where the Schnetzkas were married.

Fast forward to June, and Uncle Paul is intimating he may be shipped to Germany. It seemed a chaplain there was heading to Iraq and the Army needed Kauffman as a replacement. In addition to being a Methodist minister and head chaplain at the Selinsgrove Center for mentally retarded adults, Kauffman is a member of the
National Guard, and orders are orders.

He shipped to Germany July 19, hoping to at least to be back in time for Molly and Ryan’s wedding. The Army wouldn’t hear of it when he requested time to return to the states in August.

“I was kind of upset,” Molly said. “But I figured if he can’t do it, he can’t do it.”

But Kauffman was looking for alternatives. Counter-hitch measures included recording the marriage ceremony on audiotape, or doing a videotape. He made the audiotape and shipped it home.

Cell phone to the rescue: “While that was in the mail, his brain was still working,” his sister said, “and he thought maybe he could call and do it by cell phone.”

After numerous e-mail deliberations with the home front, the plan was put in motion. At the appointed point in the nuptials, Kauffman would pronounce the bride and groom husband and wife.

It worked without a hitch. The Rev. David Brinker performed most of the ceremony, then handed it over to his colleague on the phone from Germany. Kauffman’s pronouncement was amplified by the church’s public address system.

The newlyweds have gone fishing on their honeymoon, the bride’s mother said. “She was really happy that we could work it out—absent, but live—rather than on tape,” Lydia Schnetzka said.

“That’s one wedding people said they wouldn’t forget,” said her daughter.

The couple will live in Stewartstown. He works as a financial analyst for McCormick in Hunt Valley, Md. She’ll teach life skills at Manito Academy in York.

-- Reach John Bugbee at 854-1575 or jbugbee@yorkdispatch.com .

Source: The York Dispatch (we obtain permission for external material)
by John Bugbee
Posted by Dan Baldwin on 08/19/2004 at 02:58 PM in News

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