Equality Bill

I wish to speak to Amendment 119A. As the noble Lord, Lord Alli, has cited, it is four years since civil partnerships became lawful in this country. During that time, 35,000 couples have entered into a civil partnership. That has brought huge happiness, recognition and benefits to couples across the UK. We all know that, at present, civil partnerships, like civil marriages, cannot be conducted in religious premises. Unlike heterosexual couples who have a choice, gay couples are disbarred from making any sort of faith commitment within a religious building. As president of Liberal Judaism, which was the first religious organisation, as far as we know, to produce and publish a liturgy for same-sex commitment ceremonies, I believe that those faith groups and individual organisations that wish to allow civil partnerships to take place within their religious premises should not be prohibited from doing so. That would mean a civil partnership taking place within a Quaker meeting house, for example, or in a Unitarian church, or in a Liberal Judaism synagogue, followed by some kind of faith-based commitment ceremony, the second following naturally from the first. I want to make it clear that those faith-based organisations which support the amendment do not argue that everyone should allow such ceremonies. This is purely a permissive amendment to allow those who wish to do so the right to do it. I have some personal experience in this area. I have officiated at many same-sex commitment ceremonies which I have found uplifting and moving. Often there is a sense of joy far beyond that experienced with heterosexual marriages, however delightful they are, as only recently have gay couples, who have been together for years, been able to have any kind of public ceremony. We have come a long way but there is a little further to go. Recently, I talked to two registrars at civil partnerships where I have been a guest and where I have officiated at a commitment ceremony later on. They said, speaking from their personal viewpoint, that they find the prohibition on the use of religious premises strange. They argue that for many people, at whose ceremonies they have officiated, a religious element would have been desirable had it been possible. In my experience, there has been real joy for gay couples who have had a religious element after a civil partnership ceremony. That has been carried out at a reception in a hall or wherever and not in a synagogue. On two occasions, the couples concerned had specifically told me how they would have been overjoyed and, even more—this is very Jewish—their parents would have been overjoyed, if they could have had a ceremony within a synagogue as well. I believed them: they had tears in their eyes as they raised that with me. The prohibition meant that, in some way, what they had was second best. When we in Liberal Judaism published our liturgy for same-sex commitment ceremonies and encouraged couples who had been through a civil partnership ceremony to have a religious commitment ceremony afterwards, we were responding to a deeply felt desire. I support the amendment because I believe that it is a matter of common justice that we recognise the love and commitment of same-sex couples. I can see no reason why there should be a prohibition against such ceremonies taking place on religious premises. The Religious Society of Friends, the Unitarian Church and the movement for Liberal Judaism are all in accord on this and I hope that people of other faiths, or other parts of the same faiths, will see that we are seeking to overturn a prohibition and by no means forcing others to do the same as us. I believe that this should be a matter for religious organisations to decide for themselves and that, once they have done so, the law of the land should not stand in their way.