The government’s new law to stop the Church of England and Church of Wales from conducting same-sex marriages makes them the only religious organisation banned from conducting the ceremonies.
Early this week culture secretary Maria Miller explained that the Church of England and the Church of Wales have her guarantee that neither would have to marry same-sex couples. It’s believed that she was trying to appease Tory MPs who opposed to same-sex marriage.
Spokesman for the Church of England Right Rev Tim Stevens, bishop of Leicester explained in a meeting to MPs, Lords and bishops that he knew nothing about this ‘quadruple lock’ and was upset at the lack of communication between the church and the government.
Another member of the church said: “Bishop Tim is correct that the first mention of a ‘quadruple lock’ came when the secretary of state announced it in the Commons. We had not been privately informed of this prior to the announcement.”
Miller had intended to meet the Church of England representatives on Thursday last week but cancelled the appointment.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Dr Barry Morgan, the archbishop of Wales, said that this new government decision had come “completely out of the blue”.
She continued: “We feel it’s a step too far and we weren’t consulted and we’re now looking into what we can do. We will be pushing to have it amended, I would imagine.”
According to the government’s last guarantee, if either church wished to carry out a same-sex marriage, there would need to be changes to the canon law and primary legislation.
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