Under Church rules, vicars have wide-ranging powers to decide how weddings should be conducted. While some have been prepared to experiment, many have until now taken a traditional approach and been reluctant to allow couples to innovate.I suspect that some of them have been reluctant because they are wanting to preserve the dignity of the event -but of course that means that they run the real risk of being taste Nazis (reminds me of the saying that the Church of England would die of good taste). Now I suspect that there could be some weddings that I'd be uncomfortable to do -but I'm pretty certain that my own tolerance for 'different' is wider than most; I find myself constantly surprised at the inability of people often especially clergy to allow others to be different and even to discover in their difference some interesting and even delightful things. It's often the case that in showing an interest and being helpful we offer an affirmation which brings smiles.
But my real beef is with what this report doesn't (and probably can't) do: break the building connection. As a parish priest I've had the duty and joy of serving with congregations whose buildings are not ... well ... photogenic. I've also been inspired by the film Robin Hood (you know, the Kevin Costner one) where the wedding of Hood and Marion takes place in a woodland clearing. That's what I want to be able to do. But to do it the law has to change: we have to stop only allowing CofE weddings in church buildings and license the clergybeing so that they could carry out the ceremony anywhere (if necessary checks could be built in to such legislation if there were concerns about trivialising or inappropriate places).
I don't necessarily think that huge numbers would want to be wed in a forest glade or a circle of stones, but I do think that we should allow for the possibility, and I'd be keen to give it a go.
Church to allow Posh and Becks style weddings - Telegraph
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