APPENDIX: MEASURES AND ACTS AMENDED BY
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND MARRIAGE (AMENDMENT) MEASURE
Section 1 of the Church of England Marriage Measure
2008 as it would be amended by the Measure
1 Marriages solemnized in churches, etc in parishes
with which a party has a qualifying connection
(1) A person intending to be married shall have
the like, but no greater, right to have the marriage solemnized
in a parish church of a parish with which he or she has a
connection specified in subsection (3) below (in this Measure
referred to as a "qualifying connection") as that
person has to have the marriage solemnized in the parish
church of the parish in which he or she resides or which
is his or her usual place of worship.
(2) Where a church or other building or part
of a building licensed for public worship has been designated,
under section 29(2) of the Pastoral Measure 1983 (1983 No 1),
as a parish centre of worship, this section shall apply to such
centre of worship, while the designation is in force, as it applies
to a parish church.
(3) For the purposes of this section a person
has a qualifying connection with a parish in which the marriage
is to be solemnized if-
(a) that person was baptised in that parish
(unless the baptism took place in a combined rite which included
baptism and confirmation) or is a person whose confirmation has
been entered in the register book of confirmation for any church
or chapel in that parish;
(b) that person has at any time had his or her
usual place of residence in that parish for a period of not less
than six months;
(c) that person has at any time habitually attended
public worship in that parish for a period of not less than six
months;
(d) a parent of that person has during the lifetime
of that person had his or her usual place of residence in that
parish for a period of not less than six months or habitually
attended public worship in that parish for that period; or
(e) a parent or grandparent of that person has
been married in that parish.
(4) For the purpose of subsection (3)(d) or
(e) above "parent" includes an adoptive parent and any
other person who has undertaken the care and upbringing of the
person seeking to establish a qualifying connection and "grandparent"
shall be construed accordingly.
(5) A person who has the right to have a marriage
solemnized in accordance with subsection (1) above shall have
the like right to have the banns of that marriage published in
the parish church where the marriage is to be solemnized.
(6) The right to have banns published conferred
by subsection (5) above is additional to and not in substitution
for the requirements of section 6 of the 1949 Act for banns to
be published in the parish church of the parish where the
parties to the marriage reside or of each parish in which one
of them resides.
(7) Where a marriage is intended to be solemnized
in accordance with subsection (1) above following the publication
of banns by virtue of subsection (5) above section 11(2)
and (4) of the 1949 Act shall apply as those subsections
apply to a marriage of which the banns have been published
in a parish or district in which neither of the persons to be
married resides by virtue of section 6(4) of that Act.
(8) Subject to subsection (9) below, a person
who wishes to have his or her marriage solemnized in accordance
with subsection (1) above shall provide such information, written
or otherwise, as the minister of the parish in which the marriage
is to be solemnized may require in order to satisfy himself or
herself that that person has a qualifying connection and-
(a) section 8 of the 1949 Act shall apply as
if the reference in that section to a clergyman were a reference
to the minister, and
(b) the minister shall be under a duty, when
considering whether any information provided to him or her is
sufficient to satisfy himself or herself under this subsection
that the person wishing to have the marriage solemnized has a
qualifying connection, to have regard to any guidance issued under
section 3 below.
(9) If the minister considers that it is necessary
to do so, in order to satisfy himself or herself that a person
has a qualifying connection, he or she may require that person
to supply or support any information required to be provided under
subsection (8) above by means of a statutory declaration.
(10) Where a public chapel is licensed by a
bishop for the publication of banns and the solemnization of marriages
under section 20 of the 1949 Act, this section shall apply as
if that chapel were a parish church of the parish or of any parish
the whole or part of which is within the district specified in
the licence.
(11) In this section "church" does
not include a cathedral.
(12) In this section-
(a) "minister" means-
(i) where a special cure of souls has been assigned
to any priest for the area in which the church where the marriage
is to be solemnized is situated, whether in a team ministry or
otherwise, that priest, or
(ii) where sub-paragraph (i) above does not
apply, the incumbent of the benefice in the area of which that
church is situated, or
(iii) where neither of the above sub-paragraphs
applies, the priest-in-charge of that benefice, or
(iv) where none of the above sub-paragraphs
applies, in the case of a team ministry, the vicar, if any, appointed
by the bishop to act as rector under section 20(14) of the Pastoral
Measure 1983 (1983 No 1) or, if there is no such vicar appointed,
the vicar who has held office for the longest period in that ministry,
or
(v) where none of the above sub-paragraphs applies,
the rural dean of the deanery in which that church is situated;
(b) "parish" includes a conventional
district; and
(c) any reference to baptism, confirmation, marriage
or public worship shall be construed as a reference to baptism,
confirmation, marriage or public worship, as the case may be,
according to the rites of the Church of England.
(13) Without prejudice to subsection (3) above,
where, as a result of a pastoral scheme or otherwise, a parish
has ceased to exist or the boundaries thereof have been altered
and a person who wishes to have his or her marriage solemnized
in accordance with subsection (1) above can establish a qualifying
connection with a place situated within such a parish then, if
that place is, at the time when the notice under section 8 of
the 1949 Act is delivered, situated within the parish in which
the church where the marriage is to be solemnized is situated,
that person shall be deemed to have a qualifying connection with
that parish.
(13A) Without prejudice to subsection (3)
or (13) above, where a person has had a qualifying connection
with a parish ("parish A") and a church which was a
parish church of that parish at the time when that person had
the qualifying connection has since become and continues to be
a parish church of another parish ("parish B") that
person shall be deemed to have a qualifying connection with parish
B.
(14) In relation to the establishment of a qualifying
connection under subsection (3)(a) above by virtue of confirmation
the references in subsection (13) above to a place shall be construed
as a reference to the church or other place of worship in whose
register the confirmation was entered.
Section 7 of the Marriage Act 1949 as it would be
amended by the Measure
7 Time and manner of publication of banns
(1) Subject to the provisions of section nine
of this Act, banns of matrimony shall be published on three Sundays
preceding the solemnization of the marriage during
morning service or, if there is no morning service on a Sunday
on which the banns are to be published, during evening service
during either the principal service or both the principal service
and another service.
(1A) In subsection (1) of this section "principal
service" means the service at which, in the opinion of the
clergyman or other person who, under section 9 of this Act, has
the responsibility for publishing banns of matrimony, the greatest
number of persons who habitually attend public worship are likely
to attend.
(1B) Where banns of matrimony are published
on a Sunday during both the principal service and another service,
both of those occasions shall be deemed to be the same time of
asking for the purposes of the form of words referred to in subsection
(2) of this section.
(2) Banns of matrimony shall be published in
an audible manner and in accordance with the form of words prescribed
by the rubric prefixed to the office of matrimony in the Book
of Common Prayer or set out in section 2 of the Church of England
Marriage (Amendment) Measure 201-, and
all the other rules prescribed by the said rubric concerning the
publication of banns and the solemnization of matrimony shall,
so far as they are consistent with the provisions of this Part
of this Act, be duly observed.
(3) The parochial church council of a parish
shall provide for every church and chapel in the parish in which
marriages may be solemnized, a register book of banns made of
durable materials and marked in the manner directed by section
fifty-four of this Act for the register book of marriages, and
all banns shall be published from the said register book of banns
by the officiating clergyman, and not from loose papers, and after
each publication the entry in the register book shall be signed
by the officiating clergyman, or by some person under his direction.
(4) Any reference in the last foregoing subsection
to a parochial church council shall, in relation to an authorised
chapel in an extra-parochial place, be construed as a reference
to the chapel warden or other officer exercising analogous duties
in the chapel or, if there is no such officer,
such person as may be appointed in that behalf by the bishop of
the diocese.
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