WELLINGTON, New Zealand, Dec. 16 (UPI) — Members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, otherwise known as Pastafarians, were granted the right to perform marriage ceremonies in New Zealand.
The approval of the application was reported in the New Zealand Gazette stating that as of Dec. 10 members of the church were granted permission to perform marriage ceremonies.
Pastafarians believe in a giant flying monster made of spaghetti and have been known to wear colanders on their heads.
While some consider the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to be purely satirical, a leader of a New Zealand church vouched for their legitimacy to Radio New Zealand.
“We are a bonafide church, and our people do like to get married, some of them several times,” she said. “We like to have baptisms and babies and celebrations and divorces and its always nice to have official marriage celebrants preside over these celebrations.”
Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages Jeff Montgomery stood by his decision to approve the request despite calling it “one of the more unusual ones.”
“As Registrar-General it is my role to apply the relevant legislation. In this case, my decision can only be based on whether the organization upholds or promotes religious beliefs, or philosophical or humanitarian convictions.” he said.
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