The scene is a very busy bookshop. A bepigtailed elderwoman protagonist approaches the information desk. She pauses for a moment and then asks…
“Excuse me, Religion is…?”
Her bearded interlocutor pauses for a moment and then replies….
“Religion is in the gold room, just up the stairs.”
He pauses once again, and then asks, “Or were you looking for a more esoteric answer?”
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?
I just saw this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20680924
What in the world is the government thinking?!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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?
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.
It seems difficult, at first glance, to see how anyone can preach anything worth saying about the story of the Good Samaritan. It does not seem to matter how often Jesus?s words are repeated, they lose none of their power. The problem for the preacher is what to say. For this is one of those…
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“You can't marry him Emma, we've got to tell him what happened, and if you won't tell him, I will.”Oh for goodness sake! As if life were not hard enough for the world without another love triangle and disrupted wedding in the Archers. Who ever thought of a radio soap opera anyway – it will…
My internet supplier is warning me repeatedly today of attempts to send me e-mails containing viruses. I normally just delete these as a nuisance and ignore then, but I did notice that the e-mails in question apparently eminate from someone with an ednet account. Now, I don’t know many people with ednet internet accounts, but…
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