According to this site
I can perform weddings, funerals, etc. after being ordained- quickly and for free. What’s the deal? Did I step into an episode of Friends? I know laws differ from state to state and province to province, but has anyone ever heard of a web ordained minister legally performing a baptism or wedding ceremony?
Baptism doesn’t have to be performed by a member of the clergy, at least not in most of the Christian denominations I am aware of.
There’s a freethought church in the Dallas area that does weddings, and it consists mostly of atheists, so I don’t see why not. Also if I’m not mistaken, it’s easy to become a Unitarian preacher, and I’m sure the duties would enable you to perform weddings.
John
If a Captain on a ship can do it or a Justice of the Peace or a Mayor or almost anyone with the inclination, it seems then why not indeed!
Since baptisms and funerals have no civil consequences, I would doubt there is any regulation of them at all. Weddings are another matter of course.
Ship captains can’t really perform marriage ceremonies. See Cecil’s column Are ships’ captains allowed to marry people at sea?
One of my best friends got ordained thru the Universal Life Church, for free and on the internet. To date he has performed somewhere around 4 dozen legal weddings, including mine. His goal was to be legally empowered to perform weddings, and the ULC fit the bill in Texas.
Gone are the days when you had to go so far as to purchase a copy of “Rolling Stone” magazine and answer an ad in the back to become a member of the ULC. I’m filled with nostalgia.
I perform weddings every weekend (about 200 so far) as a Christian minister of unspecified denomination, and my faith in Jesus doesn’t extend much beyond my trust that I’ll be paid at the end of the month. Japanese law, however, doesn’t recognize anything but the paper signed at the city hall, so it doesn’t really matter how you do a wedding here.
Most states will indeed grant a license to perform weddings to a minister of the Universal Life Church. There’s a case to which the U.L.C. was a party – I think in a federal district court in California – which basically said that the government had no business telling someone he wasn’t a minister in a “real” church. I signed up and got my certificates and everything (an ironic lark for an atheistic Hindu). I haven’t actually sought a license to perform weddings, but I did find out that the Commonwealth of Virginia still is resisting giving licenses to U.L.C. ministers.
My username is from “Reverend Tim”, since that became my nickname among my friends after I became a ULC minister (the old fashioned way, via snail mail).
You are mistaken. In order to become a Unitarian minister, one must go to a Unitarian seminary, which is (IIRC) a four-year program–if it’s not that, it’s close.
I am a ULC minister, as is my cat.
I’ve NOT performed any weddings.
I can’t speak for my cat though.
Oh, I forgot to mention, I am also a ULC minister, although I was ordained when I was a minor (God bless the internet), so I’m not sure what kind of legal weight that would carry. Perhaps I should get ordained again.
This topic has come up before on the boards, with some broad ranging discussions. One of the most comprehensive is in the thread You too can be a minister.
Whether a ULC minister can solmnize a marriage is dealt with differently in different states. In some states (including Texas) there is no clergy member or civil official necessary for a marrage, so a marriage “performed” in Texas by a ULC minister would be fully valid.
On the other hand, as I mentioned in the above linked thread, the North Carolina Supreme Court had this to say in State v. Lynch, 301 N.C. 479 (at 488), 272 S.E.2d 349 (at 354-55) (1980) about marriges performed by ULC “ministers”:
As the validity of ULC ministerial certificates as a qualification to perform marriages varies by state, I would be very wary of getting married by one. I would also be wary of accepting the opinion of the clerk in the local marriage licence office as to whether a ULC minister is qualified under state law.
I’ve thought about becoming a ULC minister, simply because it would be more than a bit odd to have an atheist minister running around. 
Plus, I have a soft spot for stupid web tricks, which a ULC ordination certainly sounds like.
Hell, I’m gonna do it. If a cat’s qualified, I must be even more so.
–The Right Athiest Reverend Derleth (very shortly now :))
Not to discourage you, but from reading this thread, it looks like you’re far from the first peron to think along those lines. 
It bears mentioning that the ULC has been around far longer than the internet. I was ordained probably 15 years ago - I don’t think I have my little clergy card anymore though. I got ordained when I wandered by the ULC booth at a street fair. It took about two minutes, and cost a buck, which got me the card.
It’s also worth noting that the short statement that went with the ordination was roughly along the same lines as the “statement of principals” you are likely to find in Unitarian-Universalist literature.
I am ordained as a Brother in the ULC. I got ordained in order to perform the marriage of a good friend of mine last year. The ULC has existed since 1959 and is a legitimate religion per a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District on Califonia (Universal Life Church Inc. vs. United States of America, Feb. 27, 1974).
Some states try to make life difficult for ULC minsiters by insisting that one must have a congregation and even a church building in order to perform marriages. Other states (Colorado for instance) don’t require a minister at all, you just show up at the Court House and sign the paper work. I know for certain that in California, ULC marriages are as valid as any other.
I have made this offer before and I will again. I will perform the marriage of any Doper who lives within 100 miles of Santa Barbara for free. Just email me.
Haj
Gotta chime in. Ordained myself in the ULC four years ago. The only time I ever used it for anything was to convince a lady that she really didn’t need the deposit, first and last month’s rent, just the deposit and first month.
I didn’t have the cash and threw out the line that the ministry didn’t pay well, would she accept the deposit and first month instead of everything? Worked like a charm. And not a lie, technically, since the ministry pays nothing.