The Equalities Minister, Lynne Featherstone MP, will announce that homosexuals will be able to take part in civil partnerships in churches from early 2012.
Currently, homosexual civil partnerships can only be held in register offices and secular venues such as hotels and stately homes.
The scheme is intended to be ‘voluntary’, although critics of the move believe that what is being portrayed as ‘optional’ for churches will quickly become an expectation and then a duty.
No church will initially be compelled to offer the services, yet churches that do not agree to offer them will be put under huge pressure to change their policy by campaign groups.
It is also very likely that homosexual campaigners will commence litigation against churches that refuse, using either the Equality Act or the Human Rights Act to claim discrimination if they are not allowed to form a civil partnership in a particular church.
The Church of England currently does not have plans to bless homosexual unions.
The Government Equality Office’s report summarising the consultation responses it had received on the issue conceded that "the vast majority" of respondents "opposed the principle of civil partnerships being registered on religious premises". Yet despite this, the Government “remains committed to taking this important step for ... LGB rights.”
Recently, Conservative MP Mike Weatherley wrote to David Cameron and told him that Christian churches must be banned from performing any marriages at all if they refused to hold civil partnerships ceremonies for homosexuals on their premises.
The move to introduce civil partnerships in churches has the full backing of Prime Minister David Cameron, who has also promised to introduce full homosexual marriage by 2015, ending the legal definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
Andrea Williams, CEO of Christian Concern, said:
“This is all part of a wider, radical social and political agenda to re-define marriage and force this re-definition on everybody, whether they want it or not. Such a re-definition will affect the whole of society profoundly, and has severe repercussions for the family.”
“In addition, this move is likely to open the door towards severe restrictions on religious liberty which will have implications for everyone, but especially pastors, vicars and church leaders, who could in the future be forced to undertake these ceremonies against their beliefs.
“In no way are there sufficient protections for those who object on the grounds of conscience to providing this service. At Christian Concern we have no doubt about what will happen. Churches will inevitably be coerced into performing these ceremonies, and those that don’t will be vilified and sued. Nobody will seriously believe the Government’s assurances to the contrary, given the way in which previous assurances on civil partnerships have been shattered.
“With the Prime Minister also backing plans to introduce full homosexual marriage soon, the church at large needs to wake up very fast, or else church leaders who believe that marriage is between a man and a woman may well lose their liberty to continue acting according to that belief, and may be forced in the future to resign their positions or defy the law.”
Source
Resources
Government Equalities Office Consultation Response
Christian Concern: Sexual Orientation
Christian Concern: Coalition set to introduce full homosexual marriage