Meeting for Sufferings: Registration of Meeting houses for civil partnerships
The situation was discussed at Meeting for Sufferings on 6 October 2012
Arrangements for registering Meeting houses for civil partnerships gave rise to two current buzzwords: ‘unsustainable’ and ‘omnishambles’, according to one Friend at Meeting for Sufferings (MfS).
Jane Dawson, recently appointed staff member responsible for Advocacy and Public Relationships in the Communications and Services Department, was more diplomatic, but no less damning. She described the national picture as revealing ‘a plethora of inconsistencies, especially over fees’.
Quakers are the only organisation in England and Wales collecting data on local authority charges for registration. So far, fees vary from a one-off £120 in three authorities to one that charges £2,500 for three years. Guidance from the registrar general’s office is not definitive, so the decision on how to implement the new legislation largely rests with staff and elected councillors. Negotiation has often resulted in fees being reduced.
Friends House was the first Meeting house to register for civil partnerships, and the first same sex civil partnership in a Meeting house was held on 1 September 2012 in the Margaret Fell room. It took place immediately after a Quaker ceremony, which included the signing of the marriage certificate, held in the George Fox room next door. As required by law, the two ceremonies were separate; the civil partnership being conducted by a local authority registrar.
Friends were clear that the current anomalous situation could not survive for long. One Friend described how a registering officer had been told that there must be no religious artefacts, hymns or language whatsoever; when she asked whether silence was acceptable, she was informed that it was not, because ‘they might be praying’. Another Friend reported that some local authorities treated registration as a licensing matter whereas others treated it as a variation on civil marriage, with the result that one might deal with either a department that licensed premises for alcohol, dancing, gambling and even brothels, or the registrar’s department, who approached matters differently.
MfS asked Friends to ‘continue to challenge local authorities [councillors] and to bring to the attention of their MPs the inequality and injustice inherent in registration of religious premises so that all marriages and civil partnerships are dealt with equally’.
Area Meetings were asked to keep Friends House informed of progress and reminded that useful information and advice on negotiation was available from Jane Dawson (janed@quaker.org.uk) or by telephone on 020 663 1041. As situations vary considerably, telephone is sometimes easier.
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