Church of England Marriage (Amendment) Measure 2012

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

(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.”.

Commencement Information

I1 S. 1 in force at 1.6.2013 by S.I. 2013/1, art. 2