CONTROVERSIAL plans for dual wedding and baptism ceremonies were yesterday ruled out by the Church in Wales. The “hatch and match” service unveiled by the Church of England earlier this week allows a couple to baptise their children after the wedding ceremony, and parents can even get baptised themselves.
The two-in-one liturgy has been seen as a modernising step to make peace with families “living in sin” and encourage more cohabiting couples to marry. But traditionalists accuse the idea of being against Christian teaching by sanctioning children being born out of wedlock.
The ceremony, which costs £272, was sent out to dioceses and parish churches in England yesterday.
The move came after research commissioned by the archbishops of Canterbury and York found that increasing numbers of couples marrying in church already had children. The latest figures on births and marriages show that 44% of children are born to unmarried women.
Stephen Parkinson of the Anglo-Catholic group Forward in Faith disapproved of the move.
He said: “The proper place for a baptism is not during a wedding but during the Sunday morning act of worship so the congregation can welcome a new Christian. It is a shame that what should be a bride’s day now stands to be hijacked by screaming kids.”
A spokesperson for the Church in Wales said it would not be following suit in the near future.
“The new service guidelines which merge the marriage service with baptism are produced by the Church of England and are not therefore available for Welsh churches,” she said.
“We have not produced similar guidelines and have no plans to do so as yet.
“However, we warmly encourage couples in Wales, who want to get married or have their children baptised, to contact their parish priest or visit our website – www.churchinwales.org.uk – for advice and information.”
Welsh priests yesterday gave a mixed reaction to the new service across the border.
Canon Melville K Jones, a retired priest of the Church in Wales, said: “I don’t think it’s the appropriate time to have both the marriage and baptism together.
“It would be better as a separate occasion. I think it’s putting a lot of confusion into what both ceremonies actually mean.
“The marriage is important enough to stand alone, and so is the baptism. To put them together is making them something and nothing. The marriage needs to be on its own for it to have due significance.
“It doesn’t signal that the Church is condoning sex before marriage, but it’s facing the fact that that’s how it is today.
“There’s no point in being naive, whatever the Church says. If someone asks for the Church’s opinion they will get it.
“We are living in an age where the general attitude towards ‘living in sin’ has changed, and we either have to face up to it or risk losing contact with people altogether.”
But Pastor David Morrell of Woodville Baptist Church in Cathays, Cardiff, said he would consider the idea if he followed the Church of England faith.
He said: “It could make sense. There’s little point in criticising the idea of having the baptism ceremony at the same time because you can’t hold children responsible for the decision of a couple not to get married before becoming parents.
“Christians don’t believe that it’s ideal for people to live together before making a commitment to each other.
“But it isn’t the biggest sin that two people can commit. The Church doesn’t make a big deal of wrong-doings; you confess to your sins and try to do better in the future.
“If I was marrying people who had been living together I would like to think they would say, ‘We know we haven’t gone about it in the right way but we’re prepared to make the best of it now’.
“But the idea of saying that children can’t be baptised because their parents are living in sin is entirely wrong.”
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