- Do you have a decent church website?
- Is it up to date?
- Is it responsive – ie does it work on mobile phones?
- Does your own online profile feature your ideas and hopes and dreams other than a desire for people to turn up to church?
- Do you know what you are doing with twitter and facebook?
- Who could you learn more about social media from?
- Do you have a compelling reason why people should come to your church other than where it is or what denomination it belongs to?
- Can everyone in the church tell you in one sentence what that compelling reason is?
- What is your beginners’ course like?
- What comes after the beginners’ course?
- Do people like the preaching?
- Do people enjoy the music?
- Have you dealt with conflicts from the past?
- Are the people friendly?
- Do you have any new groups starting soon?
- Do you talk about making the world a better place?
- How will people experience joy if they come to your congregation?
- If someone from your past turned up unexpectedly at worship how would it make you feel?
- How do you identify newcomers and what do you offer them?
- What problems will arise if you do grow and how will you deal with them?
- Do claims that you welcome everyone stop you working at welcoming those who traditionally find it hard to find a home in church?
- Do you use language that is inclusive of everyone?
- How do you know?
- Is there any identifiable group of people that you can’t explicitly say are welcome because of how an individual or group in the congregation will react?
- Do you want to grow or not?
9 responses to “The Marriage Business”
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I thought that what the government actually said was more of a “obviously with the current canon laws in place, the C of E and the Church in Wales won’t be able to opt in to marriage equality because their canon laws clearly state that marriage is between one man and one woman.”
To me the ultimate issue is with the churches and their canon laws that need to be changed, no?
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I just saw this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20680924
What in the world is the government thinking?!
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Here’s the original announcement – quite clear that it isn’t just about Canon Law. They really are trying to make it illegal for the C of E and Church in Wales to opt in.
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The irony that that Department of Culture page is titled “Marriage For Everyone” absolutely knocks me down.
I think that this more than anything else that has happened in equal marriage legislation this year has a real chance of being ruled illegal under Article 9 of the Human Rights Convention.
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Church of England clergy, and Church in Wales clergy, may take note of Giles Fraser’s suggestion: “So it will now be illegal for me to marry two people who live (with) each other. Now there is a cause worth going to prison for.” as report in the Independent.
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Yes – I saw that tweet from Giles. Whilst supporting the sentiment, I suspect that he is going to have to work quite hard to find a judge willing to send him to prison for it.
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Yes, bizarre is the right word!
When the Church in Wales was disestablished back in 1920 it retained its priveledges and responsibilities with regard to marriage.
So, parishioners’ absolute legal right to be married in the parish church remains, as does the automatic right of Church in Wales clergy to be able to conduct marriages by virtue of their ordination alone.
We recently amended our requirements for residence to stay in line with the CofE, while they were able to do it through General Synod we had to resort to a Private Bill.
It now seems there are to be no EXTRA hurdles required by these two Churches, other than the separate Acts of Parliament they would need to change their current practice following agreement of General Synod or Governing Body.
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“if your denomination cannot or will not opt in then the time has come for you to stand up for what’s right. If you support equality, do something about it and show us what you are made of.” you not doing any more weddings until the SEC opts in then. Kelvin?
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I think it quite likely that should the Scottish Episcopal Church chose not to opt into the coming legislation then I would come to be view that the time had come to stop signing marriage papers. That is not the same thing, of course, as stopping doing weddings.
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Previous Posts
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Jesus met a woman at the well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAe8NXq8Lbs
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Sermon preached by the Rev Chucks Iwuagwu
Here is the sermon that Chucks preached on Sunday. Its going on the church website too. Like a number of things, its been delayed due to an internet outage at the office. I’ve got so used to uploading things with the fast internet connection in the office now that when it fails, it all starts…
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Lady Day
Tomorrow (Friday) is Lady Day – the Feast of the Annunciation. St Mary’s will be being Visited by Bishop Gregor tomorrow. That means that the Bishop will be meeting with clergy, Vestry and Church Wardens in the course of the day as well as making one or two pastoral calls alongside either Cedric (Vice Provost)…
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Internet Outage
We’re suffering a week-long internet outage in St Mary’s office at the moment, which is rather trying. Hence lack of updates and lack of answering email from the office account. Normal service may be restored tomorrow.
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