6
ISSUES: Marriage
Chapter 1: Marriage
right to conduct weddings that can
dispense with the need for civil
registrations and need to apply for
this.
For Jewish and Quaker weddings,
authorisation is given as a matter of
course, but this is not the case with
other churches and religions, including
Pentecostalism, where authorisation
may or may not be given. If it is not,
then one of two things must happen:
either a registrar must attend the
ceremony to legalise it, or the happy
couple will have to attend the registry
office separately, before or after the
ceremony, to sign the forms.
So we cannot know for sure, without
a little more information, whether
urtly’s wedding was legally valid in
the UK. If he believes it was not, it is
unlikely he and his first wife attended
a registry office or a registrar attended
the wedding. But it is just possible
that the Pentecostal Minister had
authorisation.
If he did not, then it is likely that urtly’s
marriage was invalid under English law
– or to use legal terminology, a ‘nullity’,
something that never achieved legal
validity in the first place. He could
apply in the English courts for a ‘decree
of nullity’, certifying the maybe-
marriage’s lack of validity – once he
has established that, of course.
But there’s another question to be
asked here: what is the legal situation
in his new home? How does the law
of this Dutch Caribbean island view
marriages like his first, which may be
null and void? I would advise him to
investigate as soon as he can and seek
legal advice if at all possible. What do
the authorities on his sunny new home
need him to do, if anything, in order
to ensure his second marriage is fully
recognised and legally valid?
I wish him the best of luck.
1 June 2016
Ö
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The above information is reprinted
with kind permission from Marilyn
Stowe. Please visit
.
marilynstowe.co.uk/2016/06/01/
r e l i g i ou s - v s - c i v i l -ma r r i age -
untangling-the-knot/ for further
information.
© Marilyn Stowe 2017
Humanist weddings
continue to surge in
number, bucking national
trend
T
he
British
Humanist
Association (BHA) has called
for legal recognition to be
given to humanist weddings across
the UK, as new national marriage
figures in England and Wales show
that marriages overall have declined
in number at the same time as non-
legal humanist weddings have surged
in popularity.
The Office of National Statistics
(ONS) has announced that the
number of marriage ceremonies in
England and Wales declined by 8.6%
in 2013. Meanwhile BHA-accredited
celebrants in England, Wales and
Northern Ireland performed 26%
more weddings in 2013 than in 2012 –
growth that has continued since, with
87% more being performed in 2015
than 2012.
The number of humanist weddings
performed in Scotland has grown
exponentially
since
their
legal
recognition as marriages, reversing
the overall decline in the number
of marriages in Scotland. In 2010
Humanist Society Scotland (HSS)
performed more marriages than
the Catholic Church, and in 2013
it performed more than double. It
is expected to have overtaken the
Church of Scotland in 2015 to become
the largest provider of belief-based
weddings. Humanist marriages in
Scotland were legalised in 2005,
since which time the number of such
weddings has gone from about 50 per
year to well over 4,000.
It is still not possible to have a legally
recognised
humanist
marriage
elsewhere in the UK. In England and
Wales, the UK Government is currently
considering whether such recognition
should be given. In Northern Ireland
there is no government consideration
of the issue. The BHA is today calling
for legal recognition across the whole
UK.
BHA Head of Ceremonies Isabel Russo
commented, “The UK Government
says it is in favour of marriage as an
institution. If that is true then there
is one easy, legitimate step it can
take to massively boost the number
of couples getting married, and that
is extending legal recognition to
humanist marriages in England and
Wales.
“We will be continuing to work to
see the Government make use of its
power to extend such recognition as
we know that such a change would
be overwhelmingly popular, simple
to introduce, and grant the same
freedoms to humanist couples that
are already enjoyed by religious
couples.”
Wouldn’t it be great to start your
married life with a ceremony that
really means something? To tell
your friends and family what your
relationship means to you, and why
you are choosing to get married?
Many of us who aren’t religious are
looking for a wedding that is more
flexible and personal than a civil or
register office ceremony.
Humanist, non-religious wedding
ceremonies may not yet have full
legal recognition in all parts of the UK,
but they do give you the opportunity
to mark your marriage where you
want, when you want and how you
want. You can find out more on the
Humanist Ceremonies website.
28 April 2016
Ö
Ö
The
above
information
is
reprinted with kind permission
from
the
British
Humanist
Association. Visit humanism.org.
uk for further information.
© British Humanist Association 2017
