Thousands of couples dreaming of a wedding will find more churches to choose from 1st October 2008 the day when the new Church of England Marriage Measure comes into effect.
It means that the Church of England’s network of 16,000 churches – ancient or modern, intimate or grand, simple or spectacular – can offer a wider wedding welcome than at any time in the Church’s history.
The Marriage Measure completed its parliamentary process last month. That has made it possible for the Bishops to issue the official guidance to clergy on how the new rules will work, which has been published on the Church of England website today. It means couples planning a wedding for this autumn will be able to make plans now, knowing that the new legislation will be in force. It also gives clergy a few months in order to find out exactly how the changes will take effect.
Its all very well but what of the financial implications? I minister in a parish that is very deprived and our church- though stunning on the inside- is not picturesque on the outside. If all couples go off to the leafy posh churches – who pick up cash each weekend in summer- where does that leave us? Hardly fair- the rich get richer and the poor get poorer…cannot find that model in Acts of the Apostles mytself. Perhaps the money should all be sent to Diocese and spread between ALL churches
Rugbtplayingpriest, your kidding, right? Of course, when I read the article, I thought that it was a piece of satire. Now realizing that it might not be, perhaps they could include in the list of requirements, “One of the persons’ second cousins once attended the church by accident, thinking that it was a Christian congregation.”
Rugbyplayingpriest:
We are to depend on the Lord’s perfect provision for us, and we are to act as partners in that endeavor. The world will NEVER be fair. God rewards our faithfulness with what he knows we need. Thanks be to God! It is not for us to determine what we deserve.
very noble #3- but i refer to business WITHIN God’s church. Truth is I serve in a very prosperous town- but the bum end of that town. Being Anglo Catholic we have daily mass and all you would expect. Last Easter I had 19 services and 9 sermons to preach…but no curate, youth leader, reader….nothing. Just me…the reason- we have no housing and in this diocese you must provide for all ‘workers’ within your parish. All the low churches surrounding me have just 1 service a week- but one just three roads away has 7 full time staff!! Most have at least three. NOW consider the financial implicationsof this…AGAIN we lose and the pretty churches win. The crime of my church…being situated in the poor district and being theologically out of sink with the rest of town…sorry but that sucks! However you want to look at it. Praying is all well and good….but when other Christians conspire to add to your poverty it needs challenging. I should add we are also laden with the most enormous building and thus higher bills than others too.
As non-English, non-Anglican, a sideline observation — this is not going to promote wider, broader relationships, as the article cheerily describes, but it will tend to promote more and more weddings at a smaller and smaller number of well-situated, photogenically appealing church buildings. I’d betcha a shilling that the total will actually drop of the number of congregations reporting weddings, after the first full year of implementation.
Which is what i think rugbyplayingpriest was getting at.
Another thing that should occur to people who do not live in a country with a state sponsored church is: (Old or new rules, actually) What happens if, after counseling with a couple, the priest does not wish to marry them for theological reasons? Does he have that right?
#5: Absolutely right. The church is only looked on as a venue to be hired. A country house would be better but they cost more. A partial solution would be to assign the work and fee to the clergy from the parish where the cohabiting couple come from, with a small sum to the hosting church to cover wear & tear.