The Bishop of Northampton has said the government’s announcement that heterosexual couples will be able to enter into civil partnerships “leaves out” God who “calls” a man and a woman into marriage.
Prime Minister Theresa May announced at today’s Conservative Party conference in Birmingham that the Government is to change the law to protect opposite-sex couples who want to “formalise their relationship but don’t necessarily want to get married”.
“For me, a civil partnership leaves out the One who calls a man and woman into a loving, creative and stable relationship for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health until death do they part,” Bishop Peter Doyle told the Tablet.
Christian charity, CARE (Christian Action Research Education) said it was concerned that the move would further reduce England and Wales’ “historically low marriage rate”.
"We are concerned that this decision will further reduce our already historically low marriage rate and result in increased family breakdown which we know results from not making the lifelong and solemn commitment that marriage calls for,” said family policy officer, Jonathan Williams.
He continued: "Coming on the back of the recent announcement of no-fault divorce, it is deeply troubling that rather than promoting the importance of marriage the Government seems more interested in doing things that will undermine and erode it.”
Ministers have described the move as an “important step forward for equality”.
Currently, only same-sex couples can register for a civil partnership. Heterosexual couples who do not want to marry are not entitled to the inheritance tax exemption or to marriage income tax allowance. They also do not have an automatic right to inherit their partner’s estate or family home.
Penny Mordaunt, equalities minister, said the change in the law would happen “as swiftly as possible”.
The government’s move follows a victory in the Supreme Court by an unmarried couple in June. Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan won an appeal, arguing that the current law was discriminatory because it permitted civil partnerships between same sex couples and not heterosexual couples.
The court said that the Civil Partnership Act 2004 was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, leaving it up to the government to decide how best to deal with the issue.
According to statistics, there are around 3.3 million co-habiting couples in the UK, around half have children.