Wedding vision realized
By BILL OSINSKI
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/31/05
The pastor's wedding party was bigger than most people's entire guest list.
Still, the marriage ceremony Saturday of the Rev. William Sheals, senior pastor of Hopewell Baptist Church in Norcross, and Patricia Kim was elegant, exuberant, and — despite several breakouts of spontaneous cheers from people in the nearly-packed, 2,500-seat sanctuary — traditionally reverent.
The wedding of William L. Sheals, pastor of Hopewell Baptist, and Patricia Kim featured 106 bridesmaids and groomsmen.
Sheals had seen it all before, in a vision, that is About two years ago, Sheals, 58, envisioned his second wedding as a time when all his assistant pastors, deacons and their spouses of the 18,000-member church congregation would stand up with him. Yesterday, 106 of them did.
The procession of 53 bridesmaids, dressed in gowns of old gold and holding bouquets of coral roses, and 53 groomsmen took nearly 15 minutes, even though they processed simultaneously down all three aisles of the church. The panoramic wedding party filled the steps to the altar on both sides of the wedding arch placed in the center.
Then Kim was escorted down the central aisle, which had been turned into a gauntlet of gauzy tuille cloth stetched between stanchions topped with candles and green-and-white floral arrangements. She wore an off-white strapless satin gown beaded with rhinestones. A diamond-and- gold headpiece came to a point at the center of her forehead.
A 40-year-old accountant, Kim had become the woman in Sheals' vision. He could not see her face when he first experienced his vision, but he saw Kim in the flesh for the first time last October. She had just joined the church, at the invitation of a friend and co-worker, who is also the wife of an assistant pastor at Hopewell.
He had just returned from a preaching tour of Korea, Kim's native country. They met, learned they shared the same birthday, and two months later they were engaged. This is the second wedding for both; Sheals has been divorced about eight years.
As Kim approached the altar, both she and Sheals were wiping tears from their eyes. Both appeared deeply touched by the power of the moment, amplified by a standing ovation and cheers from the entire audience.
As they joined each other under the arch, a profession of love pre-recorded by Sheals was played throughout the church.
"We were given a meant-to-be moment," Sheals said in his statement. "You lift my spirits, take my thoughts up to places where my troubles seem so far away. I know you're my soulmate."
The vows went swiftly, as pronounced by Bishop Paul Morton, senior pastor of Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Church of New Orleans.
His standard lines, "Whatever God has joined together, let no man break apart" and "I now pronounce you man and wife," were augmented by alternating jazz riffs from the keyboard. This is, after all, Hopewell, where there's soul in every service.
After rushing through the crowd of cheering congregants, the Rev. and Mrs. Sheals proclaimed themselves overwhelmed by the love shown them by their people.
"It was more than I ever expected," Pattie Sheals said.
And as for the pastor, his dream had come true. "The reality was greater than the vision," he said.
