Church warns over gay marriage

Two people who love each other and want to make a long term commitment to each other should be able to get married whatever their gender or sexuality.

Parliament has legislated on civil marriage for 400 years. It should update it again now, as it has many times before, to make sure that the way the state recognises long term loving relationships remains relevant and reflects our sense of justice and equality in a modern society.

David Cameron was right to support same sex marriage. I hope he will not wobble in the face of the first opposition.

This afternoon, Stonewall will publish our major five-yearly polling of public attitudes and that will show that not only do between 80-85% of all people in this country under the age of 50 support this proposal - extending the legal form of marriage to gay people - but, far more important, three in five - 60% of people of faith in modern Britain - say gay people should be able to get married.

One in four marriages in England are performed by the Church of England and that proportion is rising at the moment.

In every marriage service the priest begins the service by spelling out what marriage is - a union between one man and one woman with the intention of it being lifelong.

So it is really important to register back to the Government that this is not a minor change, this is a fundamental change to a very, very important social institution.

As far as I can see the Church of England is split down the middle on this issue.

Of course, what the Government is proposing is around marriage in the eyes of the state. We are seeking to protect, indeed proscribe, religious organisations from offering gay marriage.

That may be problematic legally but the proposal that the Government is putting forward is that marriage should be equal in the eyes of the state, whether it is between a same-sex couple or whether it is between a man and a woman.

They will have no impact on faith organisations or places of worship. Senior churchmen are protesting against a law change that will not affect them.

They have no right to demand that gay couples should be banned from civil marriage ceremonies.

It is absurd to suggest that allowing same-sex civil marriages would lead to legal challenges that could force churches to marry gay couples.

Civil divorces are legal, yet there has never been a successful legal challenge to religious organisations that ban divorce. The courts recognise a distinction between civil and religious institutions.