THE debate about same-sex marriage should prompt the Church in
Wales to consider whether it wants to retain its "duty to marry
parishioners" - a duty that was a "vestige of Establishment", the
Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, said on Wednesday.
Addressing the Governing Body of the Church in Wales at the
start of its two-day meeting in Lampeter, Dr Morgan suggested that,
if marriage were to become a devolved issue, the Welsh government
was unlikely to allow the Church in Wales to "hang on" to this
"special status in law", retained after disestablishment in
1920.
If the Church was to relinquish it of its own accord, all clergy
could still be licensed as registrars, making rules about residency
and qualified connections "a matter for the Church in Wales and not
the State".
In February, Dr Morgan expressed concern that the Marriage (Same
Sex Couples) Bill would prevent the Church in Wales from opting in
to perform same-sex marriages in the future (News, 1
February). He reiterated on Wednesday that there was now a
"mechanism" in place in the legislation whereby the Church "could
conduct same-sex marriages if, in the future, it decided to do so,
without having to rescind an Act of Parliament prohibiting if from
doing so".
If the Governing Body of the Church were to make such a
decision, the Lord Chancellor could, by order of Parliament, make
that possible. Dr Morgan had told the Government that he thought
that the Church did not want "at the present time" to change its
doctrine on marriage.
Dr Morgan told the Governing Body that there had been "a growth
in understanding of same-sex relationships in wider society in
recent years, and a more comprehensive understanding of human
sexuality in general". Within the Church in Wales there was "a
variety of views about the ethics of same-sex relationships".
The Bishops had asked the Doctrinal Commission to examine "the
whole issue", and, once its report was complete, there would be a
"general discussion" in the Governing Body about the way
forward.
He referred to the observation made "mischievously" by Professor
Thomas Watkin, Professor of Law at Cardiff University, that the
opening words of the marriage service, in Welsh, were "Saif y
ddeuddyn sydd I'w priodi o flaen yr", in which the literal
translation of "ddeuddyn" is "two men".