What is the Church’s teaching on divorce? The Church of England wishes all who marry a lifetime of love that grows within God’s protection. But we recognise that some marriages do fail for all sorts of sad and painful reasons.
As someone who is divorced, can I marry in church? There may be a way forward for you to be married again in church. The Church of England agreed that divorced people could remarry in church under certain circumstances. However, because the Church views marriage to be lifelong, there is no automatic right to do so and it is left to the discretion of each Parish Priest. That will mean that you will need to have a conversation with the Vicar about the circumstances behind your divorce before it will be possible to confirm if a marriage can be proceeded with.
Also, while most weddings take place under banns it will also be necessary to send a notification of the proposed wedding to the Bishop using a standard form which must have the Vicar’s support. The guidance notes that includes an application form are here to download. Once you have arranged a time and date to meet the Vicar by phone or e-mail just bring it along having completed it.
If you want any further clarity, please do just contact us.
Sunday evenings at St Judes are from 6.30pm each week in our Upper Hall that faces onto Beaumont Road behind the Church…
Reflections
REFLECTIONS
These evenings are an opportunity to reflect on a passage of scripture that might not have been that obvious or needs deeper study and it will be in a context of sung worship and prayer.
We also have various resources available each week to help us explore more and a downloadable data sheet on the particular book of the Bible we will be in will be available from here (or a printed version in Church the Sunday beforehand) so you can pre-read and prepare a bit. See below for the downloads against each week.
Hopefully, we can learn from each other in how we approach and interpret what we read. You can gain confidence in reading your Bible as we try to allow the Bible to speak to us more and more of God’s love and character.
And, is there a passage you would like us to look at? Let us know on one of the evenings and we’ll try and slot it in. We want to use different books of the Bible each time as you will also be able to build up a free resource of backgrounds to each book of the Bible.
(Click on the reading below to download the background to the book the reading is taken from. They are all in pdf text versions to keep files smaller – if you need to download a pdf reader for free, click here)
PROGRAMME
No Evening Services over Easter Holidays 8 Apr and 15 Apr
If you are looking at this page – Congratulations! (We guess you’re reading it because you’re thinking about getting married. If you are just looking for information on Banns of Marriage click here . Also, if either of you have been married before and are divorced, please follow this link).
IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE FOR IMPRITANT INFORMATION ABOUT POSSIBE CLOSURE OF THE CHURCH SOMETIME IN 2013 FOR REFURBISHMENT
This is a big step that you both need to think through – how it will work out – how you will both care for each other after the first rush of love, wedding and honeymoon. So just to get you both thinking – here’s a comic video with a strong message – just for you…
If you want to talk through these things before the big step – do take the opportunity to do so. You can speak with the Vicar or show the video to close friends and ask them to chat about their experiences and you both need to find time to speak honestly to each other about how you would deal with these and other situations before you commit to marriage. Marriage is a big step, but so worth it if its right and you can get God at the heart of it.
Weddings in churches of the Church of England are covered by the law of the land and the local clergy operate as ‘Clerks in Holy Orders’ which gives them authority to marry folk under certain controlled circumstances. The rules for who local clergy can marry changed on the 1st October 2008.
An early step you’ll need to take if you want to get married at St. Judes is to contact the vicar, Tim Smith, to arrange to meet him for an intitial discussion. Before you do that, please take the time to read the information below to see if you are eligible to be married at the Church. The vicar will need to see certain formal documents, details of which can be found on the application form you can dowload below.
You have a right to marry under Banns (Churches involved read out your names in Church over three Sundays to make sure you meet the criteria below, in the hope that someone who may know you would confirm any irregularities – such as you’re married already etc!) in your local parish church if:
• You are both over 18 (or over 16 with parental permission)
• One of you has a qualifying connection (see below for what they are) with the Church and the Church’s geographic parish boundary. (If you want to check which Church of England Church parish you live in now, or have lived in, and know the postcode, follow this link to check.)
• Neither of you has been married before. If one of you has and is now divorced, there is no right to re-marriage, it is at the sole discretion of the minister. If this applies to you then we need to have a conversation about the circumstances of the divorce to see if re-marriage is possible at St Jude’s Church. Follow this link for more information that you will need to consider before you proceed any further.
After the 1st October 2008 you can marry in a Church of England church of your choice, subject to the conditions above, if you can prove one or more of the following connections:
1. You were baptised in the church.
2. You were confirmed in or from the church.
3. A Parent or Grandparent of yours was married in the church.
4. You have had your usual place of residence in the parish of the church for at least 6 months.
5. Your Parent has had their usual place of residence within the parish of the church for at least 6 months during your lifetime.
6. You have habitually attended public worship at the church for at least 6 months.
8. Your Parent has habitually attended public worship at the church for at least 6 months during your lifetime.
If you are thinking about getting married in Church, but you don’t go to one – why not look into why we find St Jude’s a great place to be part of by joining one of our Alpha Courses? Maybe the video above raised a question for you about faith and its impact for a relationship? We have discovered a very real relationship that’s available with God through Jesus and lives filled with hope and purpose. Ask about going on one of our Alpha Courses. Then if you did discover something new and exciting, you might want to join us anyway!
Fees for weddings are set by the Church of England nationally and in February 2012 a change to the structure of the fees was agreed to include more of the variable costs that can sometimes be confusing. The full details are not yet known, but it would seem if you are marrying at the Church in whose parish you both live and only one set of banns need to be called, then the cost for a 2013 wedding would be £405.50 and in 2014, £417.50 excluding things such as an organist or special requirements. If one or both of you live outside the parish boundarioes the cost may rise a little as banns will need to be called in those parishes too. This is only a guide and we can give you further details when we meet and the actual fees will always be those in force the year you marry, not when a wedding is booked.
If you want to know more about this or any of the things mentioned here, please initially contact the Vicar before you book anything to make sure a marriage is possible on the dates you prefer in St Jude’s Church (there is a ‘contacts’ link at the top of the page). Even if you qualify to get married in St Jude’s Church, it may not be possible to hold a wedding on a particular date or time – therefore it is crucial you do not book any other venues until you check with us that the date you require is available in the Church.
If you wanted to look at some general ideas about a service, hymn selections etc, why not try the Church of England’s ceremony planning web site. (The site is really helpful and gives some ideas on planning your service, but the actual service at St Jude’s might be in a different order to the way the site shows its results - so please don’t get anything printed until you speak with the Vicar!)
SPECIAL NOTICE
St Jude’s Church has plans for a building project. We do not yet know timings (the earliest will be a Spring 2013 start, and it could be closed for up to 12 months) so it is possible the Church may be closed for those works. If that happens at the date of your wedding we will still be able to hold your marriage ceremony, but it will instead be under a licence we obtain to carry out a wedding in an adjacent parish.
