Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill

Debate between Thomas Docherty and Stephen Timms

Tuesday 5th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

I want to set out misgivings about the Bill. I am not going to vote against it, because I do not object to its being scrutinised in Committee, but I expect to vote against it on Third Reading. My hon. Friend the Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) has spoken of the Church of England marriage service in some of his interventions on this topic. He has been right to do so, not on the basis that if the Church of England says something it must be true, but on the basis that the Church of England was the custodian of marriage in Britain for hundreds of years. For many people, it still is.

[Thomas Docherty (Dunfermline and West Fife) (Lab)]

May I point out that the Church of England has never been the custodian of marriage in Scotland?

[Stephen Timms]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right.

The 1662 version of the Church of England service, which has been in use for the past 350 years, sets out three reasons for marriage. The first is that it was

“ordained for the procreation of children, to be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord”.

The central problem with the Bill is that it introduces a definition of marriage that includes the second and third reasons but drops that first one. The result is something that is a good deal weaker than the original.