Benefits of being the ‘gay church’ in village

CHURCHES should hold gay weddings and open themselves to a new “market” of worshippers, a study has suggested.

Academics at the Universities of Leeds and York say that holding such services can be “a positive brand for a place of worship”. Their study posited that churches could benefit from becoming known as “the gay church”.

Churches must “opt in” to conduct the weddings. Just 182 are thought to have done so since the law was changed in 2014. More than 40,000 places of worship allow heterosexual couples to marry.

The country’s 170 Unitarian churches have been boosted by bigger followings after gay couples who married there found their faith, the study found. Nearly half have now registered for same-sex marriage, the largest proportion of any denomination in the UK. Rory Castle Jones, 30, married Rhys, also 30, at Gellionnen chapel in west Wales last August. “I had never heard of Unitarianism,” he said.

“But we wanted to get married and my husband wanted it to be in a chapel, because he’s originally from this area. He did want it to be in his family’s chapel, but they voted against it, which was not very nice for his family. But now it’s become quite a big part of our lives.” The couple said congregations had grown significantly since they began attending.

Derek McAuley, of the Unitarian church, said: “We have seen people join and become active in several local congregations as a direct result of our welcoming stance on same sex marriage.”

Gay couples are still prohibited from marrying in the Church of England, and many other religions have also declined to register as venues for same-sex wedding services.