The Marriage Preparation Course

Before the day

The Marriage Preparation course is run by Nicky and Sila Lee, who have been married for over 30 years and speak regularly on relationships and marriage preparation. They are co-authors of The Marriage Book.

The evenings are designed for any engaged couple. While based on Christian principles, the course is relevant and helpful for any couple with or without a Christian faith or church background.

Topics covered include:

Communication
Commitment
Resolving conflict
Keeping love alive
Shared values

Each evening begins with supper. There is then a talk, followed by an opportunity for each couple to discuss issues raised. There is no group work. Each couple has the chance to discuss these issues with a married 'support couple' if they wish.

The Marriage Preparation Course takes place over five Thursday evenings from 7pm to 9.45pm at St Paul's Onslow Square, SW7 3NX. The next course (Autumn) will take place on the following dates:

Thursday 16 September 2010
Thursday 23 September 2010
Thursday 30 September 2010
Thursday 7 October 2010
Thursday 14 October 2010

We also ask you to complete a questionnaire called FOCCUS that we believe is of tremendous value. The questionnaire helps you to recognise any issues that are useful for you to discuss as a couple prior to marriage. Since training is required to interpret the results, we do not pass the results back to you directly. Instead we offer you the opportunity to meet with your support couple over dinner to discuss any issues. FOCCUS is completed on-line. We will email you details of the questionnaire and a link to the website a two weeks before the start of the course.

Please also note that due to the large number of engaged couples who register onto this course we cannot guarantee that everyone will be able to have a Support Couple that can attend the actual course or take each engaged couple through their FOCCUS questionnaire.

We allocate Support Couples on a first come, first served basis.

If your church has a couple who are trained FOCCUS facilitators, they will be your support couple for the course.

Registration is now open for the Autumn 2010 course only. The cost of the course is £65 per couple (Early Bird Discount until 22 August) and £75 thereafter. Online registration closes on 12 September but you are welcome to register on the door on 16 September. Bursaries are also available, please contact us and we will be pleased to discuss this option.

The Spring 2011 course begins on 20 January 2011. Registrations for this course will open from November 2010 and the Early Bird discount closes at the start of January 2011. For more information please contact the course coordinator on 0207 052 0323 or email: family.life@htb.org.uk

If you would prefer to order the course DVD and workbooks online, in order to work through the material in your own time, please see our website: www.alphashop.org

There are also other Marriage Preparation Courses taking place in other parts of the UK and overseas.

Please check our website for the full listing: www.relationshipcentral.org/