At the Cana Dinner, we celebrate marriage and lift up the good news about being married.
Join other couples at our annual Cana Dinner. We will have a social hour (wine, craft beer and snacks), plated dinner and a witness talk from an HNOJ couple about marriage. Couples will remember their vows and receive a blessing from our pastors.
The Cana Dinner is one of the premier events of the year at HNOJ and a fantastic night to spend time with your spouse amongst other HNOJ couples. All ages/stages of married couples attend the Cana Dinner. Newly married, couples with young kids, school and faith formation parents, empty nesters and seniors all attend the Cana Dinner. Engaged and newly married couples can attend for free!
This year's date is Feb. 22, 2025. Register below. Please contact Chris if you would like to help set up or serve at this event. (Volunteers have just as much fun as those attending!)
FAQ
Does the Cana Dinner have childcare?
No, we don't offer childcare for the Cana Dinner because the dinner runs so late (10 p.m.). Typically we've found that families rather have their littles tucked into bed before that and don't utilize childcare at HNOJ.
Love and Marriage, February 2018 Newsletter Article
How do you describe love? The greatest poets, songwriters, painters, sculptors, storytellers and artists of every generation seem to make describing love their central goal. Whether it is the love of country, love of a romantic interest, or love of God, each generation tries, in the arts, to capture an image or description of love. Love is so hard to capture because it isn’t two or even three dimensional. Love grows and changes and deepens over time so much so that it might be impossible to fully represent in any art form.
Lucky for all of us we have living, breathing examples of love in our midst here at HNOJ. We interviewed two married couples to find out how love grows throughout the ups and downs of marriage. Hopefully, by taking a look at love in marriage we can better understand what true love is like.
Madaline and Frank Renshaw have been married 56 and 1/2 years having exchanged vows in July of 1961. On the other end of the spectrum, Theresa and Eric Reichert have been married for three months having said their vows on Sept. 30, 2017. What does love look like in a 56-year marriage versus a three-month marriage? We interviewed both couples to find out.
Frank: We met during my last semester at Huron College. I was driving along with my friend Don when he said, “pull over… let’s give Madaine a ride to work.” We became good friends after our first meeting. Our love grew gradually. We became good friends after our first meeting and over the next 2 years I realized Madaline was the one God chose for me.
Eric: We were paired up to work a wedding together. We were cleaning up one of the areas where they had dinner and there was a sugar bowl tipped over and sugar was all over the table and floor. I started joking that this should be a tradition at weddings, and at my wedding I’d toss over a sugar bowl as well. She apparently thought I had said OUR wedding so she asked me, “Oh! So that’s how you’d act at our wedding?!” and then got really embarrassed when she realized that wasn’t what I said. I already had feelings for her, but when she asked that I knew.
Theresa: I went through a rough time in college. When I was down I would call Eric – even at 3 a.m. – and he would always answer, get out of bed and talk with me even for an hour or two in the middle of the night. I knew he really cared for me and he always knew what to say to make me feel better. I honestly fell for him the day I met him, but knowing how much he cared for me I knew I loved him. I still can’t believe how I’m blessed to have him.
Frank and Madaline: When we took each other for a lifetime. When God blessed our wedding at the altar joining us as one forever.
Theresa and Eric: The GETTING MARRIED part! Don’t get us wrong, the day was an absolutely wonderful and fun time with friends and family celebrating; but at the end of the day, we were both so happy just to be together and be married.
Madaline and Frank: The three of us are in this together – We need His help. God is at the helm… we go where He draws us… He is in everything we do.
Theresa and Eric: We think of the verse Ecclesiastes 4:12 stating “a cord of three strands is not easily broken.” When you have God as a part of your marriage, you stand strong and firm in a relationship. We keep our faith in mind when we make decisions. We ask God for help when we have lows and thank God when we have our highs.
Madaline and Frank: We have never missed a Cana Dinner… It is our time to say YES and thank God for all His blessings He showers down upon us day after day.
Theresa and Eric: Well, we have only had the chance to go one time so far. We were invited to last year’s dinner as an engaged couple. It was an amazing experience being in a room full of married couples that had so much history and obvious love for one another. We truly enjoyed when they had us all stand, face one another, hold each other and say our marriage vows. It was ‘practice’ for us, but the room was full of loving whispers and confident declarations of these vows. It was an amazing experience to hear from the speakers about how a marriage isn’t easy, but it takes work for both involved to keep the marriage alive and going strong. We can’t wait to come again as a married couple and have a beautiful evening to celebrate our committed love for one another.