Meet the Wetheralls: Advocates for Great Marriages
Roger and Daniela Wetherall have been blessed in marriage for almost 33 years. The Unificationist couple, who live in Stratford, Conn., are touching the lives of thousands of couples around the world through “The Marriage Course” — a Christian-based marriage enrichment program now offered through FFWPU’s “Blessing America” campaign.
“This is probably our tenth time running the course,” says Daniela. “Every time we run it, we have couples who share incredible testimonies. There are even what we call ‘Marriage Course children,’ babies who have come out of this.”
The eight-week program, which was started in England and then adopted by the Catholic Church, has gained momentum in the U.S. over the years thanks to the Wetheralls. The couple experienced firsthand the transformative power of such growth and development programs in their own marriage.
“We hit a wall around our 21st anniversary,” says Daniela, “but we decided to make it work and we started doing more things together.”
The Australian-Italian couple — who received the Marriage Blessing in January 1989 and have three children together — took on ballroom dancing and yoga, as well as joined in The Blessed Marriage Project in their local community. But Daniela says their relationship would eventually revert back to normal.
“We asked ourselves what we could find that was interesting, long lasting, and provided helpful tools,” she says. “And above all, because our relationship benefitted from all the things we were doing together, we wanted to help other couples and equip them with the possibility of doing something valuable.”
After some research and recommendations, the Wetheralls introduced The Marriage Course in 2017.
“I was really inspired by it and enrolled my wife in this vision,” says Roger.
What began as a small live program for their Bridgeport community has expanded domestically and internationally. Since 2020, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Wetheralls have offered The Marriage Course virtually with a comprehensive online program.
“We’ve been able to reach a much bigger audience with people participating all around the world — from Australia, Thailand and Malaysia to even Europe,” says Roger. “We’ve had more than 100 couples who have done it online in the last two years.”
For Nadeem and Romina, a young Unificationist couple in Arizona, The Marriage Course was just what they needed as they worked through a challenging time.
“We’ve been married for five years and been investing in our marriage prior to this course, which has been very helpful, but in 2020 we hit a major roadblock in our lives that shook us to the core,” says Romina. “We were very excited for the whole program and said, ‘This is it!’”
“The questions and overall environment of The Marriage Course made our communication much better and easier for me to open up,” says Nadeem. “Marriage and relationships are what really matter in life.”
As couples focus on each other and specific topics each week, they are given tools to improve various aspects of their marriage and family life.
“The communication tool specifically highlighted the way we react to things,” says Yumi, a Unificationist in Ohio who took the course with her husband, Sunder. “It was a wake up call for me. We also did The Five Love Languages, which evolve the longer you’re together... People change all the time; we have to pay attention not to what we think we know, but what is actually in front of us.”
“The course brings out conversations that people don’t usually have,” added Sunder. “It covers conflict areas, forgiveness, trauma... those are meaningful conversations to have.”
The Wetheralls say the program is for couples in all stages of their relationship and has invaluable life- and marriage-changing effects.
“These marriage tools are applicable to all couples, even those who have a great relationship,” says Daniela. “We’ve had people discover things they didn’t know about each other after 40 years of marriage.”
The Wetheralls aim to further share the program with other ministers, churches and extended networks, already partnering with Apostle Glenda Phillips-Lee who administered the course to her congregation in Africa.
“The Marriage Course is simply a gate that empowers us and allows us to go to even greater heights,” says Daniela. “It’s really important to help others become proactive with growing their marriage.”
“If there’s no growth,” says Roger, “we stagnate in our relationships and they start to die. We don’t always know what is really going on in other people’s lives — even close friends — but this is a way that we can really help all the couples around us and be advocates for great marriages to create a better world.”
You can learn more about The Marriage Course here. The next online program begins in early 2022.
