Equality Bill

I apologise for speaking again from these Benches, but one important distinction is being missed. A lot depends on what you mean by "a church". You might say that the Church of England may carry on in the way that it wants to, but the people responsible for marriages in the Church of England are not an abstraction called the Church of England or even, although I may sometimes wish it were different, the bishops; the people responsible are the incumbents of parish churches. I am sympathetic to this amendment and hope we may find a way that would enable those religious bodies that are quite comfortable with this to proceed in that way. However, I fear that to pass the amendment in its present form would put pressure not on the national institution of the Church of England but on the incumbents of the parishes and lead to widespread disarray throughout the Church of England. I hope there may be some room for manoeuvre over this, but as it stands it would achieve something different from that which is intended.