FAQs

• Briefly, from 1 July, a Superintendent Registrar's Certificate or a Special Licence will be required unless both of the parties are UK/Irish citizens or hold Settled (or Pre-Settled) status. Clergy should check that both of the parties are either UK or Irish citizens, or that they hold Settled Status. There are some exceptions where the preliminaries are already under way prior to 1 July.
• For the latest guidance from the Faculty Office, please follow this link: https://www.facultyoffice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Anglican-Marriage-in-England-and-Wales-Third-Supplement.pdf
• The latest guidance from the Home Office may found here: Home Office Guidance

Works to places of worship within the Church of the England are exempt from the need for listed building consent. Instead the Church of England operates its own process which is known as the faculty system. Further details can be found here. This exemption from the requirement to obtain listed building consent extends to and includes the contents of church buildings and to anything situated within the curtilage of the church, such as a churchyard wall. 

Canon B35 states that "in all matters relating to … the solemnisation of matrimony every minister shall observe the law relating thereto, including, so far as they are applicable , the rules prescribed by the rubric prefixed to the office of Solemnisation of Matrimony in the Book of Common Prayer". The rubrics in the BCP at the start of the service provide: "At the day and time appointed for solemnisation of Matrimony, the persons to be married shall come into the Body of the Church with their friends and neighbours; and there standing together, the Man on the right hand, and the Woman on the left..."  In other words, the BCP appears to require the service to take place in the "Body of the Church" and this is to include friends and neighbours of the couple (i.e. the congregation) who are also to enter into the body of the church. The better view at this time therefore seems to be that a porch wedding would not be lawful, although there may be some scope for having certain parts of the service in the porch or outside - such as readings, for example, but these are matters which would need to be discussed further.

The Chancellor has issued an Additional Matters Order (No. 2 of 2020) specifically with this in mind. This Order permits certain temporary changes to the layout of church buildings or the installation of equipment to enable churches to remain open at this time of pandemic. There is a requirement to give the Archdeacon 7 days' notice first. The Archdeacon has power to grant consent to the proposed alterations, or he may refuse to give his consent, or he may impose conditions, or he may require further  information before reaching a decision. He also has the right to refer the matter to the Chancellor for further consideration. There is of course no substitute for reading the Order in full, and a copy may be obtained from the Diocesan Registry upon request. Please note that any alterations made under the Order must be reversed by 1 June 2021 or such later date as the Chancellor may allow. Certain temporary or minor changes (such as free standing sanitisers placed on a table, for example, or certain temporary signs marking exit points or setting out distance markings) may be permitted without having first to obtain the Archdeacon's consent. Again readers are referred to the Order for the detailed provisions.