Unfinished Business

When public worship was ended in the middle of March, there was a period when weddings were still permitted in a minimal form, with only the legal minimum of five people allowed to be present (the priest, the couple and the witnesses). As Bishop's Surrogate for Oaths - how grand a title that sounds! - I had to deal with a sudden flurry of enquiries as couples struggled to get across the line before the gates closed, if you'll forgive the mixed metaphor, needing to swear affidavits for a licence to be married, given that banns could not be read in church services. Some managed it, some didn't.

This week, to my surprise at least, the government permitted both weddings to resume from July 4th, and public worship. This created an ambiguity. Would the Registry allow marriages to be solemnised by licence, or insist that when church services could be held, banns must be read? As not all churches will be reopening for worship next week, the former would be the sensible solution, but as I found myself saying on more than one occasion, the sensible option doesn't always happen.

I still haven't had any word direct from the Bishop's Registry, but the Diocese, at least, has said that all marriages for the foreseeable future must take place by Common Licence (unless they're unusual cases that proceed by other means) - a surprising instance of reasonableness. And, my mind dizzy whenever I think of the couples in their kaleidoscopically various circumstances who have contacted me, or whose proposed churches of marriage have, over the last few months, I have asked everyone to email me with their details: who are you, where are hoping to get married, and when. And we'd take it from there. 

This afternoon I sat going through the messages, working out what information I'd had from who, what I still needed, who was the priority (two couples are hoping to marry as soon as they can, meaning next Saturday), and by the end I was wincing a bit. These days my brain feels like it's fragmenting most of the time, so it was an encouragement that I could still get through it without having to stop for a cup of tea. Now for the easy bit - actually seeing the young people themselves. Details, details.