• Scotland says “I do!”

    News is just getting to me regarding the news that the Scottish Government has said that it will indeed legislate for gay couples to get hitched.

    I can’t help but feel immensely proud of all those who have come on board and made this the most positive campaign that I’ve ever been a part of.

    Scotland’s head can be proudly held up high.

    Several years ago, I took the decision that campaigning  on these issues within the church was not a terribly productive pursuit. Generally speaking most of my work in this area in recent years has been looking towards a change in the law. Quite a few of my friends thought I was mad. Many people thought it would come but not in my lifetime. I always believed this was possible within the lifetime of this Scottish parliament.

    The focus will turn to the churches soon. They will each have their own decision making process to follow. The key thing for me is that no-one in the Scottish Episcopal Church should be forced to act against their conscience – one way or the other. We’ve lived with different views on the marriage of divorcees for long enough now to know pretty well how we might proceed peaceably.

    There’s a lot more that I will say about all this later but for now, a great well done to all concerned.

    (oh, and by the way, Vacancy: Husband. All reasonable offers considered).

27 responses to “Can you backdate a marriage?”

  1. Colin Backhouse Avatar
    Colin Backhouse

    If a man and woman from England were married in a Church in the unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus with a proper ordained anglican minister can that marriage be registered and recognised retrospectively back in england?

    1. Kelvin Avatar

      I doubt it, but I’m not a lawyer so I don’t know.

  2. Stephen Clark Avatar

    Am interested to note that the Register in your post seems to be of the Commonwealth of Australia…we are now happily within the marriage equality fold (after a tortuous process).
    At lunch recently with a fellow priest we both agreed that while the laws of Australia may have changed, neither of us (he 70+ and I, 65) will live to see The Anglican Church of Australia allowing marriage equality; being as we are totally bullied by the GAFCON politics of the 4 or 5 Evangelical Dioceses led by the Diocese of Sydney (I would suggest that they are happy to call everyone to scriptural fidelity…whilst the first to breach the call to NOT call sisters and brothers to the secular courts…and then to bring the blessed Owen Dowling to the secular courts…because he chose to ordain women!.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous Posts

  • Anglican Identities by Rowan Williams

    The title seems to promise all. What does Rowan Williams think of the varying Anglican Identities which he encounters in his role as Archbishop of Canterbury? Many of us would like to know the answer to this. However, we will not find them by reading this book.Instead, we have a collection of Archbishop Rowan?s theological…

  • Songs of Praise: A Lent and Easter Companion by Andrew Barr

    Songs of Praise is already a successful brand name and must be well o­n its way to becoming a denomination. With a weekly televised worship experience, a new monthly Songs of Praise magazine and now liturgical books following the church year, it can o­nly be a matter of time before people are given the opportunity…

  • Will no-one rid me of this turbulent plumber?

    Have had to call plumber again. The hot water is now hot, but discoloured and smells like the inside of a radiator. How I am supposed to be a mystic visionary with all this going on?