St. John’s Butunyi catholic parish went into the books of history for holding a single wedding involving 32 couples. The mass wedding was presided over by the parish priest Chrispinus Marofu who stressed the importance of using the family to strengthen moral values in the community, “Good morals in the community starts from the family. When the parents don’t take good care of their children and teach them good morals then the problem will spread over to the community and nation. We may reach a point of going to the museum to learn about morals in the society in future if we don’t guide them well now.”
Marofu also called on couples to respect and love each other together with their children, “The Bible tells us that Joseph loved Jesus despite Him not being his biological son. He even taught him carpentry. But today when you go to some families you will be shocked, you find a husband saying a certain child they live with is not his because the mother came with him. Or a wife saying a certain child behaves like the father. I urge both the wives and husbands to embrace and love all the children they live with.”
The wedding had its own uniqueness, having an old couple, Tomas Nawiri aged 85 years old, and his wife Jessica Agutu aged 60 years.
Also in the wedding was a 34 year old woman, Martha Akinyi, who had a two day old baby boy, “I feel so blessed because the other day I delivered a baby boy and today am happy tying knot with my husband Nikasio.”
The mass wedding was organized by the parish’s men association coordinated by Syvanus Odhiambo, “We decided to organize the wedding because we realized many of our church members were not receiving the holy communion because they are yet to wed.” He hinted that they will organize a similar wedding this April.