The Anglican parish of Swanvale Halt has the unusual arrangement of sharing its church building with one congregation of the local Roman Catholic parish, an arrangement which has obtained these past 30 years. But it's suddenly brought a problem - and not the usual one of us having to make sure our Sunday 8am mass finishes in time for the RC one at 8.45.
There's a couple getting married in the church in the summer: he's an Anglican and she's a Roman. It was always intended to be a Roman Catholic wedding. The other day they went to find out details of the registration only to have the registrar tell them it couldn't happen. I checked, and it's true.
In my defence, Anglican clergy are told what they do in respect of weddings, but not what Roman Catholics do; why should they be? I'd always assumed that only Anglican clergy can conduct legal weddings, and that the rites of all non-Anglican churches have no legal status. So I further assumed this couple had arranged a civil registration, with a religious service afterwards. Now I discover that in fact Roman Catholic clergy occupy a middle position between the official status of Anglicanism and the non-recognition of everything else. Whereas we become treated as registrars automatically on ordination, and so can conduct Anglican weddings in any place licensed for them, RC priests are licensed to carry out legal wedding ceremonies, but only as individuals for specific buildings. If the arrangement between us and the RC parish had been a legal one rather than an informal custom, a RC wedding could indeed legally take place in the church; but as the matter lies, it can't.
There are ways of sorting this out: either our couple will have to go to one of the RC churches locally, they will have to register the marriage civilly and then have a RC service afterwards, or accept an Anglican rite wedding with a RC priest doing the non-legal bits. But how stupid and hidebound it makes both the Church and the Law appear.
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The CofE believes that two people marry each other. So does the RC church. So given the theology of both, and the injunction to love our neighbour, surely you can do your bit for ecumenism by signing it off, even if your RC colleague de facto conducts the ceremony?
ReplyDeleteYou can always sit out the back, but in earshot, and time your necessary questions so that you can hear their answers. The answers, I recollect, are the same in any case!
You have a first class mind, put it to use to sort this out for them, and make the church look good for once.
I see what you're getting at, Tim, but I don't think that would be a legal marriage. The law's very explicit about who does what.
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