After Mr. Manning’s move, they traveled to see each other at least once a month, either in New York or Dallas, where they would sleep in Rev. Manning’s dorm. When Mr. Wingfield began seminary the following year, they would also sleep in his dorm.
“It’s a rare thing when you meet someone who’s OK with staying in a dorm room,” Mr. Manning said, referring to common sleeping arrangements in seminary. “We’re both like, ‘Yeah, this is cool.’”
In December 2022, during one of Mr. Manning’s weekend visits to New York, he sat at the bar of the Commerce Inn, with Mr. Wingfield eating dinner, his leg shaking. He had planned to propose the day before in the Hamptons, but a flood had ruined the trip. He finally did at the bar, and Mr. Wingfield said yes — but before they told their loved ones, Mr. Wingfield said he wanted to propose to Mr. Manning, too. Two weeks later, on a bench at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden, Mr. Wingfield asked Mr. Manning to marry him, and Mr. Manning said yes.
A year later, on Jan. 13, they were married in a full Mass with communion in front of 80 guests at St. Luke in the Fields Church in Manhattan, where Mr. Wingfield had discerned his call to the priesthood.
Father Bo Reynolds, an Episcopal priest and openly gay man, officiated the wedding. The Rev. Adam Gorman, a Presbyterian minister, served as the intercessor, and the Rev. Jamie White, also a Presbyterian minister and one of Mr. Manning’s friends from seminary, delivered a sermon as the homilist. As Ms. White addressed the couple, the clouds outside parted and light flowed into the church, landing on Mr. Manning and Mr. Wingfield.