Church weddings: rules relaxed
Hallelujah! The Church of England has agreed to relax its rules for couples who want to tie the knot in churches where they’ve got very little connection with the local parish. Members of the General Synod, the church’s national assembly, have voted in favour of a new rule that will let engaged couples choose from a wider range of churches for their big day.
Whilst the number of civil ceremonies has soared during the last decade, church weddings have decreased by 40%.
It’s anticipated that this relaxation of the rules will help to even the score. In a nutshell, the new rules mean that clergy no longer need to apply for a special licence for couples with a ‘qualifying connection’ to one church who want to get married at another church in the same group of parishes.
According to The Guardian, the Ven Jan McFarlane, Archdeacon of Norwich, said she had seen ‘queues’ of people at wedding shows hoping to get married in hotels. “If we say no for whatever reason, we turn people away. We have lost them because they have 101 other places to go.”
Some commentators are now predicting a rise in bookings at churches which have been used for celebrity weddings, or have featured in films or TV shows. Indeed, some clergy who are based in especially photogenic churches objected to the proposal, fearing that they’d be unable to meet the demand from couples wanting to get hitched in their particularly picturesque churches.
Picked a venue and considering stag do ideas or still chewing over proposal ideas? Check out our wedding planner countdown – essential reading for every stage.
Would you prefer a church wedding? Maybe you think formal wedding attire is OTT for an alternative ceremony? Go on, give your views an airing on the forum.
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It’s a really interesting argument isn’t it:
On one hand, each Church has to meet it’s parish share so there has to be an element of running the church like a business and opening your doors to more weddings will help with that.
On the other hand, most priests/Revs/vicars are at work pretty much 100% of the time, trying to meet the spiritual and pastoral needs of their congregation, whilst worrying about the business/admin/marketing/finance side of things so should we really be adding more pressure to their schedules when the number of people being ordained is dwindling?
Tricky!
Leave your response!