It has long been a privilege for the Church of England, as the “Established Church”, to offer marriage ceremonies in a Parish Church to those who live within that parish, or who worship regularly at that church.  Anglican clergy are authorised to act as Registrars for marriage, and it remains an important element in our ministry to do just that.  We recognise how important a step marriage is, and how much joy and celebration surrounds it, and we hold it to be truly a privilege that we are able to play our part. We have, of course, to operate within the law of the land, marriage being a legal as well as a spiritual ceremony, and the parameters within which we work are those agreed with the Registrar General and with Parliament - and so are not to be treated lightly!  The situation now, after a revision of those parameters a few years back is basically this.  Any Anglican Parish Church is allowed and enabled to offer a marriage ceremony to those who seek it, as long as one of the couple concerned can meet one of these 8 criteria: 1.  He or she has lived in the parish for a period of 6 months at some stage in their lives. 2.  His or her parents have lived in the parish for 6 months, during the applicant’s lifetime. 3.  He or she has worshipped in the church for 6 months at some stage in their lives. 4.  Her or his parents worshipped there for 6 months during the applicant’s lifetime. 5.  She or he was baptised there. 6.  She or he was prepared for confirmation there. 7.  His or her parents were married there. 8.  His or her grandparents were married there. We do need to be clear that one of these criteria must be met before the wedding is booked.  This does represent a tightening of the policy that we have recently used, but obviously we will not seek to apply it retrospectively.  We will though apply it to all applications received from March 1st 2011. Of course even the strictest application of these rules means that there are usually at least two parishes in England ready and willing to offer a marriage ceremony to every couple, except in very exceptional circumstances.  For us as local churches it means that we are able to focus our ministry on those who live in our parishes, and that’s very important to us. If you have any questions regarding this, do please make contact with one of the clergy team, and we’ll be only to happy to try to answer them for you.  If you wish to begin the process of preparing for marriage in any of the Team churches, then again, do make contact with one of the clergy team, and we’ll do all we can to help you.  It’s worth adding that should one of you have been divorced that doesn’t make a marriage in church impossible, but it does add a level of complication that will need to be discussed before any arrangements can be made - so again, please make contact first.