AUSTRALIA'S largest and most conservative Anglican diocese will tomorrow approve changes that would permit couples to marry in church, whether or not they are Christian. The change to be passed at the Sydney synod tomorrow makes the diocese the 14th of the country's 23 to approve the reform that would allow an unbaptised Australian to be married in church provided he or she meets the basic standards for civil marriage: a union between a man and woman voluntarily entered into for life.
The change was first mooted at the Anglican general synod in 2007. It has since been put to the different dioceses for agreement and will go back to the national synod next year. Of 16 dioceses that have so far considered it, 13 have agreed, including Melbourne and Adelaide, with Sydney to follow tomorrow, breaching the halfway mark.
The reform drops the "faith requirement" promulgated in 1981 that requires at least one half of the couple be baptised into the Christian faith (not necessarily Anglican).
The Catholic Church, by comparison, requires both parties to be baptised before they can be married, and one half of the couple must also be Catholic.
The Uniting Church does not require a declaration of faith.
Anglicans insist the change has nothing to do with the decline in popularity of the church marriage.
On the contrary, the church in Sydney has recently had to appoint Richard James to do nothing but meet the engaged and conduct weddings at the classic, neo-Gothic St Thomas Church in North Sydney, which has lately been overwhelmed by couples wanting to marry there.
"My target market are people who wouldn't call themselves Christian," the Reverend James said yesterday.
"They are people who have no relationship with God, who want to get married in a church and I welcome them with open arms."
He doesn't always know why couples who aren't Christian want to marry in his church, but suspects it may be because the church is pretty and the service so lovely.
"But that's OK. I want unchurched people, who don't have a church, to come to us," he said.
"My concern is, for too long, churches have been turning away people because they don't fulfil the criteria.
"I'm not going to knock back people who aren't Christian. I marry them, and I tell them God is present, and I pray for them, and they love it. And maybe, just maybe, we can introduce them to God that way."
The Bishop of North Sydney, Glenn Davies, said the Anglican Church did not want to put conditions such as that in the 1981 law on marriage.
"If we say one half of the couple must be baptised, that might encourage people to get baptised just so they can get married. Baptism is more important than that," Bishop Davies said.
Bishop Davies said it was particularly silly for the Anglican Church to say that only one half of the couple had to be baptised.
"If the requirement were that both had to be Anglican, that would have least made sense," he said.
"To have one a Christian, and one not a Christian, that means you could have a Christian in the church marrying a Buddhist."
He said some bishops were concerned about the change, saying a commitment to the teachings of Christ was surely a minimum requirement.
But he said many other clergy were not even aware of the requirement and did not ask couples if they were baptised before they married them.
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