Getting married in an independent church

Batman_100

Hi, 

Me and my partner are in the very early stages of planning our wedding. 

We’ve decided to get married at my partners mums church. We don’t attend very often ourselves, but my partners mum goes to the Sunday service every week, it’s the church my partner was taken to as a child and the minister is a close family friend, so it just felt right for us to want to get married there. We went to the service last Sunday and after speaking to the minister he said he’d be happy for us to get married there. 

On its website, the church describes itself as ‘an independent bible believing church, not affiliated with any denomination’. They have a small, mainly elderly congregation and haven’t held a wedding in many years. But the minister reassured us the church is a licensed wedding venue and unlike in some other free churches, we won’t need to have a registry office ceremony beforehand and they’ll arrange the registrar for the service. 

This is something I don’t really know anything about as every wedding I’ve ever been to has been in either a registry office or a CofE church. I’ve done some research online and have some questions which I don’t know if anyone can help with. 

Firstly, in the eyes of the law, will this be classed as a ‘civil’ rather than a ‘religious/Christian’ wedding if it’s being presided over by a registrar rather than a minister of religion and is taking place outside the Church of England? 

Secondly, if this is the case, from what I’ve found online, the law doesn’t allow venues for civil weddings to have any religious content in marriage ceremonies. So in this case how are we supposed to do things you would normally expect at a Church wedding like bible readings, hymn singing etc…? 

Finally, an online search led me to a report from the law commission dated 2022 recommending major changes to the law on weddings. Does anyone know if this is likely to become law soon and if it will affect us in any way? 

We’re still in the very early planning stages and, like I said, it’s not something I know anything about so might feel a bit silly asking the minister these basic questions. Any answers or advice would be greatly appreciated. 

RAS

Hi,

Starting point. I don't know what your possible church believes, is affiliated to but the term Independent Church/chapel had a quite specific association.

The group is also known as the Congregationalist Church, and more recently many joined the United Reform Church.

If your church isn't affiliated to either, you might want to change your thread title.

HampshireH

It will be a non religious ceremony and will have to follow the registrar civil ceremony rules/format 

Do you need the prayers/hymns and Bible readings? Or is being in the building with the church community enough?

If not enough then perhaps it would be best to have your civil ceremony and then have a religious blessing where you can include all these things. 

theoretica

If the church is properly registered as a 'place of worship' - which CofE places are exempt from but does not require affiliation with a denomination and is registered for marriage then my understanding is you can have a religious ceremony there.  But I am sure the minister can confirm.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/places-of-worship-registered-for-marriage

tightauldgit

From what I can see the registrar doesn't "preside" over the ceremony if it's a religious one - it's simply that outside of a CofE wedding you need to have a registrar there to do the formalities of registering the wedding legally. So you have your religious ceremony with whatever bells and whistles you want and then at some point you go sit with the registrar to legalise it on paper. 

The way you and HampshireH seem to describe it the only religious ceremonies allowed would be CofE which can't possibly be the case. 

HampshireH

The church would need to be a registered religious building for a religious ceremony to take place.

I had assumed the question about whether it would need to be a civil ceremony was posted perhaps because the church isn't registered.

OP can you clarify?

From what is said the minister isn't a registered person and the OP would require a registrar. A registrar will charge a fee to attend the church to carry out the ceremony. 

I'm probably way off but if it's the normal registrar for a civil ceremony then when we had ours it was made very clear they wouldn't incorporate any religious elements.

theoretica

HampshireH said:

The church would need to be a registered religious building for a religious ceremony to take place.

I had assumed the question about whether it would need to be a civil ceremony was posted perhaps because the church isn't registered.

OP can you clarify?

From what is said the minister isn't a registered person and the OP would require a registrar. A registrar will charge a fee to attend the church to carry out the ceremony. 

I'm probably way off but if it's the normal registrar for a civil ceremony then when we had ours it was made very clear they wouldn't incorporate any religious elements.

If a registrar is needed for a religious ceremony (It used to be CofE, Jewish and Quaker which did not need a separate registrar, but think more can now have their own) they do NOT carry out most of the ceremony - they just handle signing the register.

Batman_100

theoretica said:

If the church is properly registered as a 'place of worship' - which CofE places are exempt from but does not require affiliation with a denomination and is registered for marriage then my understanding is you can have a religious ceremony there.  But I am sure the minister can confirm.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/places-of-worship-registered-for-marriage

Thank you. That’s very interested. I imagine what the minister meant by ‘licensed wedding venue’ is that they’re registered under this act. 

Another thing I was wondering was that because the last wedding the church held was in 2017, their venue license might need renewing. But the link you posted doesn’t say anything about a registration lapsing after so many years so I guess this won’t be an issue.  

Batman_100

tightauldgit said:

From what I can see the registrar doesn't "preside" over the ceremony if it's a religious one - it's simply that outside of a CofE wedding you need to have a registrar there to do the formalities of registering the wedding legally. So you have your religious ceremony with whatever bells and whistles you want and then at some point you go sit with the registrar to legalise it on paper. 

The way you and HampshireH seem to describe it the only religious ceremonies allowed would be CofE which can't possibly be the case. 

That’s quite reassuring. So I imagine the minister will ‘preside’ and do all the important bits with the registrar sitting on the front row making sure he’s doing everything correctly and then just sign the register at the end of the service? 

I did read online about how the officiant has to be physically present but doesn’t necessarily need to lead the couple in saying the contracting words. Is this correct? 

Batman_100

Something else I wanted to ask is will this be regarded as a civil wedding so far as the pre wedding procedures are concerned? For example, will we still have to go to the local council offices to have our ID checked and go through other formalities to make sure it’s not a sham marriage? 

Savvy_Sue

I am well behind with the current regulations, but I would trust the minister to know what needs to happen.

DH was once an Authorised Person for our URC. Our building was able to hold weddings without a registrar present, and there were no restrictions on religious content.

However, it was necessary to register the intention to marry at the local Registrar of B,D&M. I have no idea what that entails now.