While wedding services, celebrating a vow of fidelity between husband and wife, abound for both liturgical and freer Protestant traditions, there has not been a comparable provision of a covenant service for those who are called to the celibate life. In response to this need, the “Celebration of Covenantal Celibacy” liturgy was created to provide a parallel service, celebrating a vow of chastity, whether for a season or for a lifetime. Acknowledging the high calling of celibate singleness in the midst of spiritual family, the liturgy is a communal worship service that honors the sanctity of celibate singleness and highlights its merit in reflecting unique facets of God’s character and Christ’s love for the Church. Download the Celebration of Covenantal Celibacy Liturgy.

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With roughly 48% of the U.S. population being single, most pastors and other Christian leaders have unmarried persons in their care. While there are rich liturgical practices celebrating marriage, the Church generally suffers from an underdeveloped theology (orthodoxy) of biblical singleness. Likewise, churches often lack meaningful practices (orthopraxy) that invite singles into the full life of Christian community. But imagine Christian communities where both marrieds and singles flourish in their discipleship and thrive in the midst of the New Testament call to spiritual family. This vision is often the heartbeat of many Christian leaders and many churches are making important strides to honor singleness. How can we begin taking more intentional steps towards achieving this vision in practical ways? How can Christian communities not only validate biblical singleness in word, but also substantiate these beliefs in deed? As Christ incarnated both the theology and praxis of celibate singleness, we can look to His vision of what singleness and family should be as revealed by Scriptural standards.    

In the New Testament, Jesus makes it clear that He is forming a new spiritual family called the Church and in that new community, Jesus redefines the meaning of family (Matthew 12:48-50). In this new family, God honors both faithful marriage and celibate singleness as vocations that work together to extend His love to a hurting world. Though each calling is unique, Scripture posits them as equally God-honoring vocations. Christ has interwoven marriage and singleness to work in concert to bear witness to God’s character and redeeming love; therefore, it is impossible for us to live into our respective callings faithfully without the support of one another. The Kingdom of God welcomes and needs both singles and marrieds. For a deeper dive into the theology of singleness, Timothy Tennent’s book, For the Body: Recovering a Theology of Gender, Sexuality, and the Human Body, has been a helpful resource for many Christian leaders. The Church rightly elevates and consecrates the sacred calling of marriage through many liturgical practices, including solemnizing the marital covenant through the wedding ceremony. Yet, in most Protestant streams, no liturgical practices exist that elevate and consecrate the sacred calling of celibate singleness, whether that calling is for a season or a lifetime.

In response to this void, I created the “Celebration of Covenantal Celibacy” service, a liturgy that honors the high calling of celibate singleness in the midst of spiritual family. The liturgy is embodied as a worship service that acknowledges the sanctity of celibate singleness and celebrates its merit in reflecting unique facets of God’s character and Christ’s love for the Church. By emphasizing the covenantal nature of celibacy in the service’s name, the ceremony underscores singleness as a meaningful calling. Regardless of how long a person is single, this public promise upholds longsuffering love for and committed service to God and the Church. The person taking the vow is intentionally aligning him/herself with the incarnational model Christ Himself set forth for biblical singleness. And in highlighting the celebration facet in the service name, this service testifies to the joy that accompanies embracing a calling to faithful obedience through celibate singleness. 

In today’s media-saturated culture, people are constantly inundated with the narrative that true fulfillment comes from the pleasures of casual romance and sex. The Church needs the witness of faithful singles who embody a Christ-centered vision of fulfillment grounded in faithful obedience to Scripture. In turn, faithful singles need the Church to encourage them in the midst of these cultural lures that their vocation of celibate singleness is a meaningful calling that deserves to be celebrated. Through the “Celebration of Covenantal Celibacy” service, the Church has the privilege of embodying a more biblical and compelling narrative to our single brothers and sisters that counters the culture’s lure to idolize pursuits of romantic/sexual pleasures. People who embrace celibacy and make a public commitment embody a biblical model that points to a deeper, more enduring reflection of God’s love than what culture advertises. The Church cannot fully understand certain aspects of God’s character without the unique witness of faithful singles. By celebrating this calling through a communal worship service, the single person is commissioned to live out their calling as an act of faithful obedience and love to God and to the Church family. In response, the Church family commits to support the single person as their brother or sister in Christ, enacting a mutual and reciprocal covenant.

Creating and blessing a pathway of faithful living for single people celebrates their God-ordained calling. Whether these men and women are single for a season or as a lifelong vocation, they need the tangible support of their spiritual family. Integrating the “Celebration of Covenantal Celibacy” liturgy into the normal life of the Church brings dignity and accountability to the celibate single life, just as the wedding ceremony does for fidelity in marriage with couples. The Church needs to answer the clarion call to reflect a biblical theology, demonstrating that both singles and marrieds are needed for the Church family to be at its best and healthiest. Men and women for whom marriage is not a current reality are longing for their spiritual families to embrace them with dignity and support.

Imagine the witness, to a world where loneliness abounds, of more and more churches welcoming both singles and marrieds with equal value into a spiritual family. Imagine a Christian community that drastically changes the tide of same-sex attracted persons towards embracing the decision to faithfully follow Jesus through celibate singleness. Imagine a fellowship of believers where weddings and celibacy covenant services are equally common and celebrated by the entire congregation, setting up a pathway for both marrieds and singles to thrive in their respective vocations. This vision is possible, and it begins by taking faithful steps towards instilling a biblically faithful theology of singleness and then substantiating that orthodoxy with meaningful orthopraxy. Integrating the “Celebration of Covenantal Celibacy” service into the rhythm of Church worship could be one of those critical first steps.

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Download the free liturgy here.

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If you’d like to connect with the author of the liturgy for conversation or questions about her own Celebration of Covenantal Celibacy service, you can reach her at [email protected].

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“This newly crafted Celebration of Covenantal Celibacy Service by Lindsay Allen is a long needed liturgical gift to the church to honor those who have been duly called to the celibate vocation as a sign and seal pointing to the union with Christ to which we are all summoned.  For such a service to now be widely available to Protestant Christians is an historic milestone in the growth of our joyful affirmation of those who are committed to the singled focused life.  I heartily encourage this liturgy to be widely endorsed and embraced by the Christian community.”
–Timothy C. Tennent, PhD
Methodist Chair of Divinity
Beeson Divinity School, Samford University 

“Lindsay Allen’s work is a profound and timely liturgical resource that restores honor to the sacred vocation of celibacy, offering a rich theological and pastoral vision for upholding singles and those committed to lifelong vows. In an age that often neglects or even dismisses such commitments, Allen’s work stands as a witness to the beauty, truth, and goodness of a life devoted wholly to God. This resource is an essential guide for the Church to recognize, support, and walk alongside those who embody this countercultural yet deeply biblical calling.”
–Jonathan A. Powers, PhD
Associate Professor of Worship Studies
Asbury Theological Seminary