Church of England Marriage (Amendment) Measure 2012

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.”.