Marriage Equality in England and Wales

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An historic day for Britain (although Scotland, with its own Parliament, is left behind, for now).

Reading coverage of responses from various faith groups, I hope that denominations that welcome marriage equality will thrive. I particularly liked this:

Paul Parker, recording clerk for Quakers in Britain, said: “It’s wonderful to see same-sex marriage achieve legal recognition. Quakers see the light of God in everyone so we respect the inherent worth of each individual and each loving relationship.”

As for the Roman Catholic and many evangelical churches, it’s a different and predictable story. A bit more complicated with the Anglicans (Church of England and Church in Wales), which are now actually banned by law from performing gay weddings. Some Anglican churchmen were strongly against marriage equality, but others are opposed to the ban, which reminds us why state churches are a terrible idea.

5 Comments for “Marriage Equality in England and Wales”

  1. posted by Houndentenor on

    I wonder what it’s like to live in a country where none of the major parties has been hijacked by religious extremists.

    • posted by Lori Heine on

      It’s nice to think about. My mother’s family came from Britain, so maybe I’ll move back there.

  2. posted by Tom Scharbach on

    The law requires churches to opt in order to perform SSM. Otherwise, churches may not perform SSM’s. Churches that do not opt in cannot be sued for failing to perform SSM’s. An interesting approach to religious participation.

    • posted by Mike in Houston on

      One of the vagaries of not having a written Constitution means having to be ultra-explicit in order to be preemptive in dealing with legislative issues.

      Here in the states, we have yet to deal with the issue of having the state favoring certain doctrines when it comes to marriage equality instead of being agnostic about it. I love to see how Scalia dances on the head of that pin to buttress his obvious (and oblivious) antigay animus.

  3. posted by TomJeffersonIII on

    Wow. Yeah, the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats and even the Conservative Party all favor — from what it seems — marriage equality.

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