Society has changed a great deal since 1949 and, according to Reverend Steven Hollinghurst, as society has changed the Church’s residency regulations were getting increasingly harder to defend and uphold. The reverend said,

“It was a soul destroying thing to turn away from our doors young people who wanted to make their vows to each other in the sight of God.”

As a result of these outdated ‘restrictions’, since 1994, the number of civil ceremonies conducted in Britain annually has risen to over 50,000, whilst weddings in the Church of England have dropped by a staggering 40 percent to 60,000 a year.

A survey conducted by confetti.co.uk revealed that a greater number of couples would opt for a church wedding if they knew they could have one and that 53 percent of survey’s participants believe that church weddings would “feel more proper”. The survey found that a quarter of the couples asked would have preferred to have a church wedding, but believed because they did not attend church regularly they were not able to.

In response to this the Church of England has launched new laws titled the ‘Marriage Measure’, which offers more flexibility for couples wishing to be married in a church. A church will allow a marriage ceremony to go ahead if just one of the partner’s has a loose family connection with the parish. The Church of England Marriage Measure insists that a couple can marry in a church where they can demonstrate a ‘qualifying connection’, including where one of them may have been baptized, or in a parish where a parent or grandparent has lived or had been married.

Reverend Steven Hollinghurst (left), photo by Robert Walton

Reverend Steven Hollinghurst is thoroughly in favor of the changes, although he believes they have not altered anything that drastically and refers to the Marriage Measure as “slight modifications” which are a “welcome improvement”. According to the vicar,

“In these days when the population is so mobile and people have roots and connections in so many different communities, the old residency rules seemed increasingly bizarre, outdated and unfriendly.”

‘Unfriendliness’ is something the modern and approachable Reverend Hollinghurst can be accused of. One objective of the Church of England’s new Marriage Measure was to become more ‘consumer-friendly’ and clergy around the country have been offered training days and issued with guidelines on how to make the ceremony more ‘light-hearted’ and fun. The ‘Tips for Vicars’ include encouraging the congregation to clap and cheer, by allowing ‘Kodak moments’ whereby guests to take photographs of the ceremony and to itemize the cost of the service to the couple, to show that the wedding is relatively cheap. Bishops across the country have even been attending wedding shows to make the public aware of the changes.

Although the Marriage Measure was passed by the large majority of clergy at the General Synod in York, like with most changes, the new regulations have not been without its criticisms. The choice of church is the biggest concern some clergy have is definitely a valid point. Idyllic, pretty churches are bound to be more preferable to run-down inner-city churches, which ironically need the money the most. It was because of this fear of continual weddings at impressive and magnificent churches that the synod resisted allowing people to be married in any church they wanted. The Reverend Steve Hollinghurst is the vicar in a particularly outstanding and inspirational 12th century church in England. This church would have undoubtedly been one that the synod would have feared for being swamped by a barrage of weddings for its divinity and grandeur, perfectly positioned beside a panorama of gently rolling hills and meadows, and in the winter shaded silver by a sprinkle of frost. Although because of its location ‘out in the sticks’ in the small village of Pembridge in Herefordshire, weddings here remain a relatively uncommon occurrence. Many clergy wanted more radical changes enforced but, according to Steve Hollinghurst, by enabling anybody to be married anywhere would…

Pembridge Church, photo by Gabrielle Pickard

Sally Worthing and Ben Price, who have been living in London for the past ten years, are amidst the initial throes of organizing their wedding. They are delighted because of the new laws they have been given permission to marry in the church in a small village in Sussex that Miss Worthing attended as a child.

“I would not have been as excited and elated about being married in a registry office which we feared was our only option before the new law. Now my wedding will mean a lot more to me personally,” Sally stated.

Whilst Reverend Andie Camper’s price-busting fifty quid Ebay weddings may be a little intense, the fact that people can now be married in their chosen religious setting without living in the parish and regularly attending the church is a major breakthrough in the Church of England’s pursuit to reach modern times. Marriage ceremonies should not be regarded flippantly and never because of petty and anachronistic bureaucracy. It is only correct that everybody should have a right to a church wedding and the Church of England’s Marriage Measure has made it much easier to say, “I do” in front of God.

Gabrielle Pickard for RT