Church of England Announces New Marriage Proposals

The Church of England has announced new proposals that allow couples to have greater choice over where to marry.

The Church's leaders are set to change their legislation to allow couples to get married in any church where they have a "qualifying connection".

Under the proposals, any person who has been baptised or was prepared for confirmation within a certain parish will be able to marry there.

They could also choose a church in a parish where one of them has been resident or has attended worship for at least six months.

The Church had previously stopped short of granting permission for couples to get married in any church they wished, for fear of creating such a broad right as could result in couples choosing the "prettiest" churches.

Geoffrey Tattersall QC, from the Diocese of Manchester, said there was a risk that such a right would lead to "an undesirable concentration of marriages in attractive places or close to popular reception venues".

"This could place considerable burdens on the clergy or would lead to marriages in churches with which there was no connection and with no real opportunity for proper marriage preparation," he added.

Currently, couples can only marry in a church in a parish where one of them is resident or on the parish electoral roll unless they have a special licence granted by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

But new rules would allow a couple to choose a parish on the grounds that a parent is resident or a parent or grandparent was married in the parish.

The draft measure was unanimously approved at the meeting of the Church of England's General Synod at the University of York on Saturday. It now passes to a further stage within the Church for the drafting of the legislation.

A Church of England spokesman said people had become far more "mobile" over the past 50 years.

"This is about saying we have got to take this into account, and saying let us make it easier for them, not so they can choose the prettiest church but so they can choose a church that has meaning for them," he said.

The move comes after new figures released last month revealed that for the first time, fewer marriages were held in churches and other religious institutions.

According to the Office of National Statistics report, 84,400 religious ceremonies were held in 2005 compared to 88,710 in "approved premises" such as stately homes and hotels.

The remainder of the 244,710 marriages in 2005 total took place in a register office.