It is helpful, at the outset, to affirm clearly the teaching of the church on marriage. The Book of Common Prayer describes marriage as ”˜part of God’s creation and a holy mystery in which man and woman become one flesh.’ It is to be monogamous, with a publicly declared intention that it be life”“long. The church’s teaching has been faithfulness within marriage as the normative context for sexual expression.
The state, in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, has provided in law for civil partnerships between persons of the same gender. Such partnerships are one means of conferring specific legal rights, but may not necessarily involve sexual expression. It is clear that they are not recognised by the church as marriage. Indeed they are not recognised by the state as marriage in either jurisdiction. However, because civil partnerships are narrowly limited to people of the same gender, they are often perceived as an equivalent to or imitation of marriage for same sex couples.