Rifle-toting couples blessed in bizarre church ceremony (PHOTOS)

Hundreds of gun-toting parishioners descended upon a rural Pennsylvania church on Wednesday to have their marriages (and AR-15s) blessed. Some participants even sported crowns made of bullets.

In a bizarre ceremony contrived by the son of deceased cult leader Reverend Sun Myung Moon, women dressed in white and men in dark suits paraded around the Unification Church – whose members are known colloquially as ‘Moonies’ – in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania, with their holy “rods of iron.” Worshipers were urged to unload their rifles before bringing them to be blessed.

READ MORE: Blessed are gun-toting couples: Pennsylvania church to host AR-15 ceremony

The ritual comes just weeks after a teen armed with an AR-15 killed 17 students and school staff at a high school in Parkland, Florida. However, a spokesman for the church insisted that the marriage-and-assault-rifle blessing ceremony had been planned long before the February 14 mass shooting.

A couple wearing bullet crowns sit with their AR-15-style rifles in their cases, as people attend a blessing ceremony at the Sanctuary Church in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania. © Eduardo Munoz © Reuters

A church official throws holy water on an AR-15-style rifle while people attend a blessing ceremony with their AR-15-style rifles at the Sanctuary Church in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania. © Eduardo Munoz © Reuters

People with their AR-15-style rifles attend a blessing ceremony at the Sanctuary Church in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania. © Eduardo Munoz © Reuters

A man with a flower in his rifle joins people with their AR-15-style rifles during a blessing ceremony at the Sanctuary Church in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania. © Eduardo Munoz © Reuters

A church official holds her AR-15-style rifle while people attend a blessing ceremony with their AR-15-style rifles at the Sanctuary Church in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania. © Eduardo Munoz © Reuters

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