Category Archives: Noodle Love

Positive FSM experiences

First Recognized Pastafarian Wedding In New Zealand

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Congratulations to Toby Ricketts and Marianna Young — their wedding was was the first legally recognized Pastfarian wedding in New Zealand.

The pirate-themed ceremony – on a ship docked in Akaroa before a crowd dressed in full pirate regalia – featured choruses of grunts, colander crowns and pirate-themed puns.

‘Ministeroni’ Karen Martyn, who became the world’s first legal marriage celebrant for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) earlier this year, wedded the couple.

By all appearances it was a huge success. Best of luck to the happy couple and huge thanks to Minister Karen Martyn for the excellent ceremony.

New Zealand is one of the few places in the world that formally recognizes The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster as a religious organization.

The wedding was well covered in the media. My favorite articles are the one on Stuff.co.nz and the one on the BBC.

One last note: the news has brought out some angry people — I received a number of a nasty emails today, surprising because I don’t understand how a wedding is anyone’s business except the couple’s. This was most definitely not a statement against Christianity, it was a wedding; it was a celebration of love and fun. To the haters, please relax.

Congratulations again to the happy couple.

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The Templin Pastafarians are Fighting the State of Brandenburg

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Our friend Brother Spaghettus is fighting for the right to keep Pastafarian signs up.

In Brandenburg, Germany, churches are allowed to post signs advertising their gatherings. But after the Templin Church of FSM put up signs advertising Noodle Mass, the local government said the signs must come down, because Pastafarians clubs are not a legitimate religious community.

Now Brother Spaghettus and his crew are taking the fight to court.

I think it’s great, and expect a successful outcome. If nothing else, it will be interesting to see the arguments for allowing Protestant and Catholic churches to advertise their meetings but not the Church of FSM. It will be hard for the bureaucrats to devise a test of religious legitimacy that keeps us out. We’ll see!

Huge thanks again to our friend Brother Spaghettus for all of his excellent work. Such a great ambassador for all of us Pastafarians — and he really looks the part, too.

You can read more about the case here: www.thelocal.de

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The Lansing capitol display looks great

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Excellent — the Lansing State Journal made an article about the Flying Spaghetti Monster Holiday display at the Michigan capitol grounds.

The tongue-in-cheek church — its pamphlet advertises “flimsy moral standards” and a “WAY better” heaven that includes a stripper factory and beer volcano — brought its monument to its creator to the statehouse on Friday. The monument shows a sort of blob of spaghetti with eyeballs on top and giant meatball orbs on either side.

You can read more of the Journal article here. There’s a video and some more photos as well.

The backstory is that Michigan lawmakers decided to open up the capitol lawn to everyone (as not to appear to promote Christian displays), and a number of religious groups (including us) jumped on the opportunity for outreach.

Huge thanks to Chris Beckstrom and the local Pastafarians for organizing the display and their evangelism efforts (not to mention Chris’s impressive accordion playing). No doubt passers-by were enchanted, maybe already considering converting to Pastafarianism.

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New Zealand government approves Pastafarian marriage ceremonies

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Good news — New Zealand has approved the Church of FSM to perform marriage ceremonies.

The application was approved under a sub-section of the Marriages Act, satisfying the registrar-general that the principal object of the organisation was to uphold or promote religious beliefs, philosophical or humanitarian convictions.

Posted by Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster – New Zealand.

Montgomery said the purposes set out by the church were educating and training people, particularly atheists and superstitious people, about Flying Spaghetti principles and practices.

Those principles covered human rights, cultural and spiritual diversity, ethics, relieving poverty and advancing education.

“In considering the matter I have referred to the Objects of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, reviewed material available online about this organisation and considered other organisations already able to nominate marriage celebrants.

“A review of media and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s international website show a consistent presentation of their philosophies. While some claim this is a ‘parody organisation’, members have rebutted this on a number of occasions.”

You can read more about it here at stuff.co.nz.

I lived in New Zealand for a year in college and it does not surprise me that the NZ government has publicly acknowledged our legitimacy, both because they are a progressive open-minded people, and also because of the amount of drinking that goes on over there.

Unrelated, they have birds that eat cars:

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