{"id":3638,"date":"2016-10-24T09:16:19","date_gmt":"2016-10-24T09:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/2016\/10\/24\/healthy-marriage-is-more-than-just-a-ceremony\/"},"modified":"2016-10-24T09:16:19","modified_gmt":"2016-10-24T09:16:19","slug":"healthy-marriage-is-more-than-just-a-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/healthy-marriage-is-more-than-just-a-ceremony\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy marriage is more than just a ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"

24 October 2016 | Nicosia, Cyprus [Marica Mirilov]<\/p>\n

The first weekend in October saw twenty couples in Nicosia, Cyprus benefiting from a free, unforgettable three-day marriage enrichment programme. It was hosted by the local Seventh-day Adventist church.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The engaging seminars were presented by experienced and inspirational family trainers Karen Holford, Trans-European Family Ministries director and the author of several books in the field; and her husband, Pastor Bernie Holford. Seminars covered reflected on the Seasons of Marriage, Building Healthy Relationships, Creative Conflicts, and Fun and Friendship in Marriage.<\/p>\n

Silvana and Andrew de Jesus, one of the youngest attendee couples found encouragement in realising that the disillusionment stage in marriage is only a phase that can be passed through, moving to more exciting stages of discovery and depth in marital relationship.<\/p>\n

The most popular practical tip of the programme was 10 x 1 minute\/per day connecting. The couples were challenged to make lists of 10 creative ways to consciously connect with their spouses each day. Such a practical suggestion was fully embraced by the couples since it fits in with the stressful and time limited modern lifestyle. Once the participants started putting down ideas such as a massage, telling a joke, sending a love message, taking a selfie together, or simply holding hands, they realised that this is not an obligation but rather a fun way for people who love each other to connect.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Cyprus reflects the rest of Europe with its decreasing marriage rate and an increasing number of divorces. Dr Branislav Mirilov, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cyprus, expressed the need for regular programmes such as this. \u201cHealthy marital relationships equal loving families, and lead to a more stable society. The church must play a significant role in nourishing relationships. It is far more than just performing marriage ceremonies.\u201d [ted<\/em>NEWS]<\/p>\n

\n

ted<\/em>NEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, director; Esti Pujic, editor
119 St Peter’s Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England
E-mail: tednews@ted.adventist.org<\/a>
Website: www.ted.adventist.org
ted<\/em>NEWS is an information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division.
You are free to re-print any portion of the bulletin without need for special permission. However, we kindly request that you identify ted<\/em>NEWS whenever you publish these materials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

24 October 2016 | Nicosia, Cyprus [Marica Mirilov]<\/p>\n

The first weekend in October saw twenty couples in Nicosia, Cyprus benefiting from a free, unforgettable three-day marriage enrichment programme. It was hosted by the local Seventh-day Adventist church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1581,1573,1574,7],"tags":[180,75,134],"class_list":["post-3638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus-region","category-family-relationships","category-health-wellness","category-news","tag-cyprus","tag-marriage","tag-seventh-day-adventist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}