Yes, but not every church. It depends on your religion and if you want a civil marriage you will need to find a church that is no longer used for religious purposes and is licensed by the local Registrar.
If you follow one of these religions you are in luck and will be able to have your lesbian marriage ceremony in a church:
- Metropolitan Community Church
- Quaker
- Unitarian
- United
- Unity
Unfortunately, the most popular Christian religions in England, Catholic and Church of England, do not allow same sex weddings and they also own the most impressive churches and cathedrals. However, the Church of England will bless a gay marriage, so you could have a minimalist civil wedding at the Register Office and then a blessing in a church. Interestingly, it is actually illegal for gay weddings to be carried out by the Church of England. This is due to the fact that the church has a unique status with the state and their clergy have a legal duty to conduct marriage ceremonies. If the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 didn’t reflect the canon law of the church it would have been possible for a gay couple to force the church to marry them.
Anyway, I digress. The answer is yes, but it depends.
We had a same sex marriage in a beautiful and historic Unitarian Meeting House in September 2015 although neither of us are Unitarians. The Unitarians couldn’t have been more welcoming. We designed the service In discussion with the Unitarian minister and were very free in our choices. In practice we decided to make our wedding vows very close to the normal Anglican ones.
@David Mills, I’m glad that you were happy with your wedding in a Unitarian Meeting House. As a Unitarian minister, I am delighted to be able to work with couples (gay or straight) to create a memorable spiritual ceremony according to their backgrounds and beliefs. Along with the Quakers and Liberal Jews, Unitarians were at the forefront of the campaign which led to the Marriage Equality Bill. Tolerance and equality are essential elements of our open-minded spiritual communities. Rosslyn Hill Chapel (in Hampstead, London) has already hosted a number of gay weddings and we are looking forward to welcoming more in the future!
Can two lesbians get married
My daughter and her partner are getting married in May 2018 at a hotel in Harrogate. The wedding is not the issue, rather the Blessing in the beautiful chapel nearby. The brides want the formal marriage to be a low key affair but to have a large number of guests at their Blessing immeadiately afterwards. I am really struggling to find a member of clergy or celebrant who will perform that Blessing. Anyone got any ideas?
My wife and I had our marriage blessed in a small Surrey village in the C of E parish church just last weekend.
It is a member of the Inclusive Churches group.
We had a full service which was beautiful.
It couldn’t officially be called a blessing by the lovely vicar as that’s still not allowed by the higher powers in the Church.
It was instead called celebration of marriage.
So happy that we were able to have a full church service following our civil marriage the year before.
Hi
I am trying to research churches where me and my wife can have our marriage blessed and read your post. It sounds like just what we want. Do you have any advice on how to find a church in our area that will perform the ceremony. We live In Sheffield
Please could someone help me find a church in our area (Glossop, Derbyshire) where we could have a blessing of our relationship
Dear All
We have a lovely gothic church on a hillside in the tiny hamlet of Winderton in Warwickshire 12 miles south of Stratford upon Avon. It was made redundant by the Church of England in the 1970’s and has lain virtually unused ever since. It’s beautiful and it’s owned by a charitable trust. We are just making it available for same sex marriage blessings.
( Sorry at the moment the licence still has to be done in a registry office or such.) But if you want a spectacular hill top setting with amazing views then drop me a line. carolefoster77@gmail.com
I’m 20 and gay and no where near to getting married, so that’s annoying. Do you think it will change, considering the uprising of LGBTQ+?
There is any church in London area who celebrate gay wedding?
This article says CofE churches can bless your marriage. This is not quite true. They can’t ‘bless’ your marriage as canon law prevents this, but they can conduct a service that uses similar language. Of course not all CofE churches will want to do this, but luckily an organisation called ‘Inclusive Church’ has a directory of mostly CofE churches that will. Whilst they’re not legally allowed to marry same-sex couples, or offer blessings, the churches on this list have made it clear that they would like to be able to, so you can be assured of a warm welcome.
https://www.inclusive-church.org/inclusive-churches
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