Church of England Marriage (Amendment) Measure 2012

1 Qualifying connections under section 1 of the Church of England Marriage Measure 2008

(1) After section 1 of the Church of England Marriage Measure 2008 (“the 2008 Measure”) there shall be inserted the following section—

“1A Further provisions as to qualifying connections

(1) Where a person intending to be married has, under section 1 above, a qualifying connection with a parish belonging to a benefice and—

(a) a direction is in force under section 23 of the 1949 Act in respect of both that benefice and another benefice held in plurality, or

(b) a direction is in force under section 23, as extended by paragraph 14(4) of Schedule 3 to the Pastoral Measure 1983, in respect of a church or chapel of that parish and of another parish in the same benefice,

the marriage may be solemnized and the banns of the marriage may be published under and in accordance with section 1 in any church or chapel specified in the direction.

(2) Where—

(a) a parish church, or a public chapel to which section 1(10) above applies, is being rebuilt or repaired and on that account is not being used for divine service, and

(b) a person intends to be married on the basis of a qualifying connection under section 1 with the parish in which that church or chapel is situated,

the marriage of that person may be solemnized and the banns of that marriage may be published under and in accordance with section 1 in any building in which, under section 18 of the 1949 Act, the marriage could be solemnized and the banns published, whether or not that building is situated within that parish.

(3) Section 6(3) of the 1949 Act shall apply for the purposes of section 1 above as it applies for the purposes of section 6 of that Act and a person who has the right to have banns published in an adjoining parish under that subsection shall be deemed to have a qualifying connection under section 1 with that parish.

(4) 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, as a parish centre of worship and the parish has no parish church, section 29(3) of that Measure shall apply for the purposes of section 1 above.”.

(2) In section 1(2) of the 2008 Measure, after the word “building” there shall be inserted the words “or part of a building”.

(3) In section 1(13) of the 2008 Measure, at the beginning there shall be inserted the words “Without prejudice to subsection (3) above,”.

(4) After section 1(13) of the 2008 Measure there shall be inserted the following subsection—

“(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.”.

2 Form and time of publication of banns

(1) Where banns of matrimony are not published in accordance with the form of words prescribed by the rubric prefixed to the office of matrimony in the Book of Common Prayer they shall be published in the following form—

“I publish the banns of marriage between NN of ..... and NN of ..... This is the first/second/third time of asking. If any of you know any reason in law why they may not marry each other you are to declare it.”.

(2) Section 7 of the Marriage Act 1949 shall be amended as follows—

(a) in subsection (1), for all the words after the words “solemnization of the marriage” there shall be substituted the words “during either the principal service or both the principal service and another service”;

(b) after subsection (1) there shall be added the following subsections—

“(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.”; and

(c) in subsection (2), after the words “prescribed by the rubric prefixed to the office of matrimony in the Book of Common Prayer” there shall be inserted the words “or set out in section 2 of the Church of England Marriage (Amendment) Measure 2012.”.

3 Citation, commencement and extent

(1) This Measure may be cited as the Church of England Marriage (Amendment) Measure 2012.

(2) Section 2 and this section shall come into force on the day on which this Measure is passed and section 1 shall come into force on such day as the Archbishops of Canterbury and York may jointly appoint and different days may be appointed for different provisions or for different purposes.

(3) This Measure shall extend to the whole of the provinces of Canterbury and York except the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, except that—

(a) the provisions of the Measure may be extended to the Channel Islands, as defined in the Channel Islands (Church Legislation) Measures 1931 and 1957 or either of them, in accordance with those Measures, and

(b) if an Act of Tynwald or an instrument made under an Act of Tynwald so provides, section 1 and this section shall extend to the Isle of Man subject to such exceptions, adaptations or modifications as may be specified in the Act of Tynwald or instrument.