A consultation is underway on
whether civil partnerships should be allowed to be registered in
churches and other religious buildings.
Under current law, civil partnerships can only be registered at
secular venues and the ceremonies do not contain any religious elements.
The Government wants to implement a section of the Equality Act 2010
that would allow civil partnerships to be registered in religious
venues.
The consultation document states: “We propose to operate an ‘opt-in’
system for those faith groups that wish to host civil partnership
registrations on their premises.”
Equality Minister Lynne Featherstone said: “The government is
committed to advancing equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people and
to ensuring freedom of religion or belief for all people.
“To further both of these aims, the government is committed to
removing the legal barrier to civil partnerships being registered on the
religious premises of those faith groups who choose to allow this to
happen.
“This will be done by implementing section 202 of the Equality Act
2010 [which] makes clear that there will be no obligation on faith
groups to host civil partnerships.
“The proposals set out in the consultation document are designed to
respect the wishes of faith groups whether they wish to host civil
partnership registrations or not.”
Faith groups will have to agree on whether or not to permit the
registrations on their premises and individual religious premises will
be required to obtain approval from the local authority for their area.
While the Quakers and Unitarian Church support a change, most Christians are strongly opposed to the move.
The Evangelical Alliance, Christian Concern and Reform are among the
groups raising concern over whether a change to regulations will lead to
discrimination against Christians.
Although Featherstone has promised that churches will not be obliged
to perform the ceremonies if they do not want to, evangelical groups
fear vicars will be brought before the courts if they refuse.
In a joint statement, Affinity, the Christian Institute, Christian
Concern, Reform and the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches
said: “When it comes to equality legislation, permission often turns
rapidly into coercion,” the groups said.
“Christians will need a great deal of reassurance that the Government
is not about to do something that will make their situation even
worse.”
The consultation is due to close on 23 June.