Marriage and the commons

To the House of Commons for a meeting of Christian leaders called by Simon Hughes MP from his  constituency of Bermondsey and Old Southwark.

Around 30 of us gathered in one of the Commons committee rooms to discuss, firstly, the Government proposals for same-sex marriage, followed by one or more from a list of other issues which we had been asked to rank in order of importance before the meeting (housing came top).


In the event the discussion on marriage rather over-ran and we only had time to begin discussing the next issue of housing, to which we shall return in a follow-up meeting in a month's time. (Two statistics stood out: 25 per cent of local households are overcrowded;  50 per cent of property sales in the area are for second or third homes. In other words, property is in desperately short supply and its cost is rocketting).

On the issue of same-sex marriage there was widespread concern that the proposals are being rushed through parliament, that the measure appeared in neither party manifesto nor in the coalition agreement, and that there has not been proper consultation with the churches in general and the Church of England in particular.

Lots of good points were made and Simon listened carefully to the views of Christian leaders drawn from across the denominations.

One of the key issues is whether you can open the institution of marriage to same-sex couples without changing its essential character.


Me? I spoke of the givenness of marriage and others made similar points. The law does not make marriage, it recognises something that is a given, an institution hat has been created by God. The wedding service calls marriage 'a gift of God in creation' and that is absolutely right.