Not good enough
REF your recent coverage of marriages at St Andrew’s Church, Girne:
My daughter had a wedding ceremony at St Andrew’s in 2016. She chose the venue because she attended Sunday School there and was confirmed there by Bishop Clive in 1998, having lived in Cyprus for all of her childhood. I was first a member of St Andrew’s in 1980.
I read with absolute incredulity your report (Cyprus Today, March 24) that “several” weddings in St Andrew’s had not been legally registered. I then read Rev Wendy Hough’s explanation last week.
I am writing because I have serious questions that noone seems prepared to answer, either by email or phone calls.
Firstly, why have all the couples whose marriage certificates are “lost” not been officially informed of this, even though those certificates have been missing for at least six months? There were no security cameras at that time. Now they have been installed it seems naive to think the certificates will be “returned”, which was mentioned to me as a possibility weeks ago. As far as I am aware there has still been no official police report on the loss and possible theft of these official documents.
Secondly, in the “missing” file were all those weddings since 2004. There must, however, be records of who these couples are. A payment of £400 is currently requested for each wedding at St Andrew’s, so named receipts, at least, must still be available as well as information in Church records. Couples could surely have been easily identified.
I was never informed by St Andrew’s, and nor was my daughter, that these certificates were missing. The first we knew was when we received a vague email from the Anglican Office saying they had mislaid my daughter’s wedding certificate due to “moving office”. As far as I am aware, on investigation, they are in the same building.
So how have these certificates or records gone missing from the Anglican Office as well and at the same time as those held in St Andrew’s are mislaid? Also the cost for registering at the Anglican Office was 300 euros. Once again records must be available via these payments at the very least.
I also read the Archdeacon of Cyprus’s previous comments on this matter. Has he no idea of the legal aspects that this has caused? For him, for example, to say of the one couple they have so far publicly identified, and who have had to remarry, that the wedding they had in Cyprus was “a lovely service” is an insult to the sanctity and legitimacy of marriage in general.
Whether the Church or Ms Hough paid anything to compensate them is irrelevant.
There could be cases of unwitting mortgage fraud, inheritance issues and illegitimacy of children, and not addressing this is not good enough.
All those married at St Andrew’s since 2004 now need official answers and legal proof that they are in fact married, not platitudes. This needs to be addressed immediately otherwise there could be serious legal implications for all those involved. Denise Phillips, Girne
Editor’s note: Archdeacon of Cyprus John Holdsworth said “every effort” was being made — through a “new wedding coordinator” who had moved to a neighbouring building — to contact couples involved, but receipts did not contain sufficient information.
“The Diocese wedding admin office deals with the individual weddings of churches. [St Andrew’s Church] opted out of this [system] four years ago. The Diocese does not hold separate records but has intervened to make sure every wedding conducted has been registered and that there are no other problems in the future.
“We are not issuing platitudes. We were aware of the problem and took immediate action. We wanted to deal with this sensibly.”
He said the missing file had been reported to the Diocese, which had tasked someone at New Year with conducting an inquiry, and this needed to be given time. While there was “no evidence of any illegitimacy at weddings”, anyone with questions could contact the Diocesan office via info@cypgulf.org or Pat Baulch via weddings@spidernet.com.cy.
“I have a standing offer to Denise Phillips to meet her in person at our Diocese office in [South] Nicosia, to address any of her concerns . . . We want to be fully transparent,” he said.