Most Rev Peter Smith says ending ban is an attempt to alter status of marriage and would be strongly opposed by churchThe Catholic church is on a collision direction with the administration after declaring it will oppose in the “strongest terms” changes to the Equality Act that will allow gay couples to register civil partnerships in places of worship.A statement from the archbishop of Southwark, the Most Rev Peter Smith, said it was neither “necessary nor desirable” to allow gays and lesbians to have civil partnership ceremonies in religious premises and accused the administration of “considering a fundamental alter to the status of marriage”.Churches and Christian groups have criticised the House Office choice, announced at the end week, to lift the bar on civil partnership ceremonies being held in places of worship. The equalities minister, Lynne Featherstone, has come under fire for disclosing the administration’s intention to consult over how marriage laws in England and Wales can be reformed further.The house secretary, Theresa May, said the rule changes would not be mandatory: “No religious collection will be forced to host a civil partnership registration, however for those who wish to do so this is an vital step forward.”However Smith said the alter was something “never envisaged by the Equality Act or any other legislation passed by parliament”.The archbishop added: “Marriage does not belong to the state any more than it belongs to the church. It is a fundamental human institution rooted in human nature itself. It is a lifelong commitment of a male and a woman to each other, publicly entered into, for their mutual wellbeing and for the procreation and upbringing of children.”There was also implicit criticism of those religions and movements supporting the alter – Quakers, Unitarians and Liberal Jews have welcomed the administration’s modernising agenda.Smith said: “No authority – civil or religious – has the ability to modify the fundamental nature of marriage.”The Equality Act was amended to permit civil partnerships on religious premises, which unhelpfully blurs the distinction previously upheld by parliament and the courts between marriage and civil partnerships.”A consenting minister is perfectly autonomous of charge to hold a religious ceremony either before or after a civil partnership. That is a affair of religious freedom, however it requires no legislation by the state. We do not believe it is either necessary or desirable to allow the registration of civil partnerships on religious premises. These will not capture place in Catholic churches.”The Catholic bishops of England and Wales have had mixed success when they have lobbied administration in the past.In 2006 they succeeded in persuading the then education secretary, Alan Johnson, to scrap plans for quotas in faith schools, however failed to persuade the Labour administration in 2007 that Catholic adoption agencies should be exempt from sexual orientation regulations, which would have led them to consider gay couples as prospective parents.The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, a UK-based international and non-denominational charity campaigning for an inclusive church, welcomed Featherstone’s announcement.Its chief executive, the Rev Sharon Ferguson, said: “We are of direction delighted by this development which has been a extended age coming. We reject concerns by some that this is an infringement upon religious liberty. No religious collection, Christian or otherwise, will be forced to conduct civil partnerships. However the contemporary situation is an infringement upon the religious liberty of those faith groups who are pleased and indeed keen to conduct such civil partnership ceremonies.”CatholicismCivil partnershipsEquality Act 2010Gay rightsLynne FeatherstoneChristianityReligionRiazat Buttguardian.co.uk © Twitter News & Media Limited 2011 | Employ of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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