Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone has announced plans to remove the ban on civil partnership ceremonies in places of worship, and a consultation on giving gays the right to marry. The latter move may mean changing the legal definition of marriage as a heterosexual institution. The Church of England won’t allow it’s churches to be used for civil partnerships, and said the proposals could have ‘unintended consequences for churches and faiths’. But the Archbishop of York gave the ideas a cautious welcome, provided churches were not forced to marry homosexuals. The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches and the Catholic Church rejected the plans, but Quakers, Unitarians and liberal Jews welcomed the news. The ban on night-time nuptials is also to be lifted, and civil partnerships may be offered to heterosexuals.
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