Can ministers ordained online solemnize legal marriages?
They can and they have in the state of Pennsylvania, although there is disagreement among the county courts concerning the legality of such marriages; no cases have gone before the state supreme court, and the state itself has not taken a clear stand on the issue. A woman in York County wanted to have her marriage annulled on the grounds that she and her husband were married by a Universal Life Church Monastery minister; the judge presiding over the case agreed that her marriage was invalid because Pennsylvania state law requires ministers to be “of any regularly established church or congregation,” and he did not think a minister who did not conduct or attend services at a physical church and did not have a congregation met this requirement. However, a couple in Bucks County, realizing this could set dangerous precedent for thousands of couples across the state, requested that the Bucks County court legally recognize the validity of their marriage, which had also been solemnized by a
