As of this evening I am an ordained Dudeist Priest. I have the documentation coming from
http://Dudeism.com.
I admire the way of The Dude, and there is a story....
My oldest daughter was married at 5 PM this Thursday at the Mishiwaka Amphitheater (
https://www.themishawaka.com/) west of Fort Collins. A lovely old venue next to the Poudre river, with kayakers going by all day long. The officiant was one of her past bosses, a very cool lady who has been ordained for some time. Turns out that you don't have to use an officiant of any formal religion; in most of the US just about anyone who is ordained by a religion defined very loosely is just fine as long as they carry out the correct process in documenting the wedding.
It was a fantastic event. There was an excellent live band and the music went on until 9 PM. It was a wonderful time!
At the event, one of my nieces asked me if I could be the officiant at her wedding in December. Turns out that in her fiance's family there is a tradition that the senior uncle in the family conducts the ceremony. I'm senior to any uncle on either side, so she asked. Well what the heck, we were planning to go anyway, and I was complemented. I of course said yes!
Then I came home, checked out the Church of The Dude, and was ordained. It doesn't hurt a bit.
My daughter's last company, Duda.co (Internet services) was actually named after The Dude. Their meeting rooms at HQ are named after various characters in the movie. Anyway, she was aware that the Church of the Dude is one of many which you can use to become ordained online. Sounded like a great idea to me. They have a well developed website with many thoughtful and amusing support and philosophy materials. I like their approach, which is "Chill, dude."
I am, however, also thinking about what it might take to start a Church of The Coug.
