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04 March 2010

Church civil partnerships

The Evangelical Alliance is calling on the Government to guarantee that churches will genuinely be free to choose whether or not to hold civil partnerships without risk of future anti-discrimination lawsuits following last night's (March 2) unexpected amendment to the Civil Partnerships Act.church of england big

The Evangelical Alliance, which represents thousands of evangelical churches and denominations across the UK, acknowledged that the change to the Civil Partnerships Act - enabling churches to conduct civil partnerships on their premises if they so wish - is in keeping with the important principle of religious freedom.

While the Act does include a clause to allow churches to refuse to conduct civil partnerships, the Alliance is concerned anti-discrimination actions under the Equality Act will undermine this protection and leave churches confused about what they are allowed to do.

Dr Don Horrocks, Head of Public Affairs for the Evangelical Alliance, said: "We understand the Lords' desire to allow a few liberal religious groups to have freedom to follow their consciences. But neither must other religious groups be forced to betray their consciences by facing lawsuits if they fail to allow a civil ceremony.

"This amendment hugely confuses the distinction between civil secular ceremonies and religious ceremonies, as well as the nature of marriage and has major implications for the UK's matrimonial laws which haven't begun to be thought through.

"On the same night, the Government refused to allow Catholic adoption agencies liberty to follow their consciences, but the two decisions are contradictory and inconsistent.

"We don't want to see in a few years' time churches ending up in the same boat, where they are forced to comply with anti-discrimination law or close down."

He added that the balance of freedoms was not fair for the adoption agencies.

"The Government therefore needs to make clear that no church will ever in the future be able to be successfully sued on grounds of discrimination for failing to allow a civil ceremony while it continues to permit religious marriages."

 

Latest comments :
(The views below are the authors', and not necessarily those of the Evangelical Alliance.)

Written by Patricia Clawson on 05 March 2010 at 16.56
What is the purpose of marriage.- It is the union of a Man and a WomAn for the procreation of children, ideally to form a BALANCED evironment in which to bring up children. How can same sex partnerships procreate and how can they provide a BALANCED male and female environment? How, therefore, however sincere and loyal two same sex people be to one another, can their partnership be considered equivalent to marriage. By all means have a blessing ceremony where a same sex couple vow to look after one another - a true commitment - please don't make it EQUAL to marriage - it just cannot physically be so, no matter how loyal the couple are to one another
Written by Philip Reynolds on 05 March 2010 at 13.31
Please ,please do let us make a stand over this issue. The fact that scripture does not condone same gender marriage is surely enough for Christians to have a stance against it. We surely have the right ( despite all the watering down of our beliefs by certain elements of the church) to be allowed to have our principles and to maintain them.
Written by Gail Eiloart on 04 March 2010 at 23.17
Apart from the surreptitious manner in which this amendment was passed, if Lord Levy is a Muslim what business is it of his to legislate how churches conduct their lives - apart from the obvious motive of undermining the traditional ethic of Christianity? Islam itself does not condone homosexuality.

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Date Created: 04 March 2010
Last Modified: 04 March 2010

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