Marriage vows

A lot the work I do is dealing with legal problems. So it's nice to look sometimes and the creation of legal relationships not what happens when they go wrong. No legal relationship could be more important than the relationship of marriage.

It cannot be denied that in UK at least marriage rates are declining. A useful site which graphically illustrates this trend is http://www.2-in-2-1.co.uk/. One interesting statistic is that in 1950 a first marriage was taking place every 1.6 minutes whereas in 2000 it was one every 2.9 minutes although this is slightly off set by an increase in second marriages in the last decade or so. The figures for divorces for the same period are 15.9 minutes (1950) and 3.4 minutes (2000). Another site says that in 2oo6 there were 237,000 weddings, the fewest since 1895 when the population of the country was not much more than half what it is now: marriage-hits-lowest-rate-since-records-began-almost-150-years-ago. About 0.1% of adults marry every year.

It is also necessary to bear in mind that gay and lesbian couples may now enter into civil partnerships and there is some controversy over proposals to allow such couples to insist on a church ceremony. One civil registrar tried to claim discrimination on the ground that being made to officiate a civil partnership offended her Christian beliefs but her challenge failed and she was instructed to get on with the job. Some clergy are now similarly up in arms because any amendment to the Equality Bill approved in the Lords will allow homosexual couples to say that they are being discriminated against if they are not allowed to be married in church as hetrosexuals are: see Clergy-could-be-sued-if-they-refuse-to-carry-out-gay-marriages-traditionalists-fear

Nonetheless let us celebrate marriage. After all, although I may be in a minority I have been happily married for 22 years and I am sure a lot of others can say the same.

Marriage ceremonies can take place if registered by the Church of England or some other religious bodies or can be civil only provided they take place at authorised venues. For a full list of the latter visit map of weddingvenues. You will even find the odd zoo listed amongst all the stately homes (I don't know if you can choose the actual enclosure).

Civil ceremonies often allow couples to choose their marriage vows, although many are adapted from the 1662 Common Book of Prayer which contains: 'To have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part'

Interestingly in the earlier prayer book of 1549, based on Latin texts, the wording was ...to death us do depart'. I have tried to research the reason for the change and I think it was because the word depart changed its meaning (for those of you gramatically -inclined it became a non-transitive verb so you could no longer depart something or someone, only from something or someone). An alternative in the 1928 prayer book omitted the additional bride's vow of 'obey' and this seems now to have become the norm. I rather like the way liturgy gradually adapts to modern mores.

One interesting snippet to close. The Gender Recognition Act 2004 allows transexual people to change their legal gender. Before doing so they must dissolve any existing marriage. If their relationship is still strong enough couples can if they wish dissolve and then enter into a Civil Partnership, all on the same day.