The declining interest in marriage, revealed in official figures last week, has been blamed on economic pressure by leading Christian marriage experts.
Financial worries are a particular concern, with fewer and fewer young couples even able to afford a wedding after battling rising house prices and student loans.
Their comments come after the figures released by the Office of National Statistics revealed marriage rates in England and Wales for 2006 are the lowest since records began in 1862.
Speaking to The Church of England Newspaper Carol Davies of the Anglican marriage support group Family Life and Marriage Education Network (FLAME) said she was very concerned about the financial pressures. “People have said that couples don’t get married because they can’t afford the increasing wedding costs but now they also have the situation of rising house prices,” she said. “Getting your foot on the housing market is now nigh on impossible.”
Let them ” ” with who ever they want. And then let the secularisits pick up the pieces. From the secularist viewpoint: “Who cares”
The ‘cost’ of marriage is substantially about the cost of elaborate receptions and honeymoons, and the anticipated cost of divorces.
As an old married guy who was wedded in only a few days (the date having been decided for us by the exengices of our work), I do not understand what “costs” people speak of. This seems only to be an excuse.
One must make a huge sacrifice to the marriage gods by having a huge and elaborate wedding and reception, or else your marriage will end in divorce — that is why marriage costs so much.
#4,
Huh? No sarcasm intended, but, I’m not sure where that response comes from or is intended to go.
I think #4 is being sarcastic, John. As one currently planning a wedding, I can attest that message is pushed by parts of the wedding industry. Not explicit, mind, but there nevertheless.
The solution to the “cost of weddings” problem is quite easy: have a simple ceremony with family and close friends. It’s just as valid as the huge theatrical performance, and far less stressful!
Seriously, our society is becoming like India, or what I hear about here in Egypt, where families must put on an enormous wedding celebration, and young people complain that they can’t afford to marry. All of us married people know that the ceremony is the least of it; it’s living together in harmony which makes the marriage.
The issue in Britain is that marriage has been relativized. The other day I was in the bank in Cambridge signing some documents. These as a matter of course placed marriage, cohabiting, civil unions, etc., all on the same level. Indeed, even the language of relationship here minimizes marriage. It would appear that the words husband, wife, and to a lesser extent, spouse, are increasingly politically incorrect, with people now using the vanilla word ‘partner,’ which really tells you nothing about the nature of their relationship with the person with whom they share their life. I believe that in the UK one of the most important jobs the churches can do is to not only raise the profile of marriage but also to help people maintain the health of their marriages.
When you have a society of the individual being driven home by the current government – why are we suprised that marriage is on the decline? The people of Britain are like sheep without a shepherd and thus blindly follow the status quo- saying partner not wife, accepting equal validity of civil partnerships, etc etc….
Christianity has a philsophy of the family- but that was jetisoned some time ago not only by society but many in the church as well
We reap what we sow.. in my parish which serves a working class community I have officated at one wedding in three years. It cost the couple £180.
The “too expensive” argument is a red herring, isn’t it? The real answer is that marriage provides no benefits that no-marriage” does not, and “no-marriage” carries none of the liabilities – like commitment and integrity and responsibility and other unpleasant concepts. In the Easy Way world, this is one more Easy Way out. Being held to standards is SO tiresome and unnecessary. Larry
Larry is right. Marriage is difficult and requires sacrifice. A society that simply doesn’t care enough about marriage to protect it with special privileges to offset the necessary sacrifice shouldn’t be surprised to find fewre marriages taking place.
I necessary qualification: It is child bearing marriages that require sacrifice and for which society has traditionally offered special protection. Easy no-fault divorce laws as well as equal pay laws have all begun to undermine the foundation of these protections before civil unions came on the scene.