lavendersparkle | (no subject)

In my perusing of the wedding planning part of the internet I'm getting increasingly irritable with non-religious brides who want to have an Anglican wedding so that they can get married in a pretty church but then bitch about unfair it is that the church:
a) won't let them get married in a different church to their parish church just because it's prettier and/or was in a film.
b) strongly encourages them to come to church a whole three times to hear the Banns read.
c) makes them meet with the vicar more than once and dares to try to explain Christian ideas of marriage during those meetings.
d) won't allow them to do things which it deems inappropriate during the service.
e) makes them use the liturgy of the Church of England.

The Church of England is a religious body, not a wedding and pretty building preservation service. Would these people wander into a Mosque because it was pretty and then get all uppity about how the imam wouldn't let them wear a strapless dress for the ceremony?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

this drives me nuts too! (especially as i sing in the choir at the local church for people who come only for the three times and clearly grimace at all the religious language involved in the ceremony. It is so bl**dy unfair that they can have their wedding there, whereas Emmy and I will not be able to, even though we are actually believing members of the church community.)

What kind of a church are you two going to now?

Alec has told me that the clergy at his church tend to hate doing weddings because the couples can be really demanding and are unlikely to ever darken the church's door ever again.

Surely if you're members of the church community, you can join the electoral roll even if you don't live there, and then you can get married there? Anyone who regularly worships in a church for six months can join the electoral roll regardless of where they live.

Frances and Emmy are both women and therefore can only get legally married or civilised in a registry office or licenced venue. There would also be issues about what kind of a religious ceremony they'd be able to have in an Anglican church.

I keep wondering whether the church community might consider celebration in a churchyard to be acceptable... :) Or am thinking a more Wesleyan approach to Christian celebration of sacraments in a field might be useful.