Code of Alabama - Title 30: Marital and Domestic Relations - Section 30-1-7 - Persons authorized to solemnize marriages

Section 30-1-7 - Persons authorized to solemnize marriages.

(a) Generally. Marriages may be solemnized by any licensed minister of the gospel in regular communion with the Christian church or society of which the minister is a member; by an active or retired judge of the Supreme Court, Court of Criminal Appeals, Court of Civil Appeals, any circuit court, or any district court within this state; by a judge of any federal court; or by an active or retired judge of probate.

(b) Pastor of religious society; clerk of society to maintain register of marriages; register, etc., deemed presumptive evidence of fact. Marriage may also be solemnized by the pastor of any religious society according to the rules ordained or custom established by such society. The clerk or keeper of the minutes of each society shall keep a register and enter therein a particular account of all marriages solemnized by the society, which register, or a sworn copy thereof, is presumptive evidence of the fact.

(c) Quakers, Mennonites, or other religious societies. The people called Mennonites, Quakers, or any other Christian society having similar rules or regulations, may solemnize marriage according to their forms by consent of the parties, published and declared before the congregation assembled for public worship.

(Code 1852, §§1946-1948; Code 1867, §§2335-2337; Code 1876, §§2674-2676; Code 1886, §§2311-2313; Code 1896, §§2841-2843; Code 1907, §§4881-4883; Code 1923, §§8995-8997; Code 1940, T. 34, §§6-8; Acts 1988, No. 88-551, p. 867; Act 2003-303, p. 721, §1; Act 2004-485, p. 903, §1.)

Last modified: May 3, 2021