According to this story in the Guardian today, it is now possible for people to get married in a humanist ceremony, and have it recognised by law. This means that it is no longer necessary to have a second wedding in the register office to make it legal.

For most people this will not be an issue: they are either having the civil wedding or going to a church, so will only have one service to worry about. But for a growing minority it is going to remove a lot of illogical hassle.

When my sister got married a few years ago, she wanted something a bit more special than the bland and bureaucratic local town hall service, but could not bring herself to the hypocrisy of pretending to be at all religious just to have a church service. (Why can’t more couples be like that? The number of weddings and christenings we have been to where the vicar seems to be the only person who has seen the inside of the building before!)

She ended up with a very special wedding. It was in a 15th century (I think) hall in York and had a medieval theme. Most of the guests were wearing medieval costume – or as close as their local fancy dress shop could manage. (The photos of me in tights have been hidden.) Worryingly, many of their friends already had such costumes… There was a lute player, and after the very dignified but totally agnostic service the food was a medieval feast with venison pie and everything. They even kept control of the music at the reception, so instead of the usual stuff it was Yes for the first dance, lots of Undertones, Bowie, Jam, etc. and even some Oyster Band.

Sounds great doesn’t it? But the stupid thing was that they were already married before any of this happened. Because humanist services are not recognised they had to go to the town hall the day before and go through the motions so they would be legally married, and then do it all again the next day.

Its not just humanists who face this. Non-Christian religions also face problems with their own wedding ceremonies not being legally recognised. We all know about those Hindu wedding parties where the ceremony can go on for days – but at the end of it (or before) the couple have to pop down to the register office to make it legal. The law says that a wedding must take place in “a register office (the office of a Superintendent Registrar), a building approved for civil marriages or a place of religious worship registered for the solemnisation of marriages by the Registrar General”, but either Hindu temples are not registered, or the weddings often have to take place in a community centre as there is no local temple. (I’m not sure which is the case. I’m not an expert)

But now the bad news. This is just in Scotland, but the British Humanist Association is now lobbying for a similar change in England and Wales.

And how did all this come about? The Scottish Humanists used the Human Rights Act to get judgement that they were being discriminated against because of their beliefs. Lets hope that we in Wales and England can catch up, and that if groups like the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs are similarly affected they can use the same grounds to bring a bit of sensibility to weddings.

But I wonder. If a town has a decent venue, and the option of a service with some pomp and dignity but no religious requirements at all, how will that affect the local churches? They must make most of their income from marrying couples who are only christian for the one day and who are therefore subsidising the dwindling numbers of people in the regular congregations.

PS. I am talking here about traditional C of E churches. From what I have seen the local Broadfield church is a more modern evangelical outfit with quite a good crowd.