Monday 20th May, 2002

I've got quite a few marriage ceremonies booked this year. Not all are in our own Anglican Church in Son Armadans. On Sunday David and Lindsay will be making their vows to each other at the Son Net Hotel in Puigpunyent. Later this year, in October, I shall be performing the first religious marriage ceremony at the Santa Ponsa Country Club. Last year, venues ranged from the panoramic viewing point above Soller, a vineyard hidden away in the countryside north of Calvia, at a villa in Pollensa, a hotel swimming pool and in the local Roman Catholic churches where we have been kindly offered hospitality in Cala d'Or, Puigpunyent and Deia.

This year each one will be different and the couple involved will have worked carefully on the setting and venue, the choice of music, the prayers and all the practicalities. Music will range from our organist, Conway Jones, to carefully chosen cassettes, soloists, a flamenco guitarist and a string quartet. They've always been, and hopefully always will be, happy, solemn and memorable occasions as a young couple - and sometimes not so young - make their marriage vows to each other in a religious setting and ask for God's blessing on them as they start their married life together. Back in England less than 50 per cent of marriages are now solemnised in church.

Gone are the days, thank God, when the only alternative was the local registry office with the rather bored looking superintendent registrar and the walls painted with green gloss paint. Since new legislation was passed a few years ago a variety of new premises have now been licensed for marriages. They range from hotels to golf clubs - and boy have they taken off! The ceremony has to be non-religious and fortunately local authorities that have to license the premises for weddings have set their face against outlandish and unbecoming venues. In the meanwhile the church has had to look to its laurels and try to offer something as a religious alternative. In my experience people still want to do something religious but don't want to be straight jacketed into the traditional church ceremony. So the Church of England is, as they say, looking into the issues involved but dear reader please don't hold your breath!

As a result of horizons being broadened in the public imagination things are changing here in Mallorca. Increasingly as I plough my way through the e-mail messages on my computer there are requests from couples enquiring about the possibility of being married in Mallorca. I always write back encouragingly saying that I'm more than happy to help in whatever way we can. If one of the couple to be married has been a legal resident in Spain for at least two years then I point them in the direction of their local town hall on the island. Once the legal work has been done we can then have the religious ceremony.

If the people are from the UK and don't have the necessary qualification, then other avenues have to be explored. Unfortunately the Anglican Church in Mallorca is not qualified to perform legal ceremonies without a lot of expense and legal paperwork. So if they want a marriage ceremony in Mallorca - and who can blame them with the beautiful scenery and weather-other ways have to be found. We ask them to do the legal work at their local registry office in the UK prior to coming out. It's the simplest way and causes less heart ache and anguish. We suggest they book the date for their civil marriage a few days before coming out here. Jokingly I always suggest they should "go in their jeans and in their lunch hour". Then they can put all their effort and enthusiasm into their religious ceremony out here with their bridesmaids, best man, family and friends. The only difference to back home is that there will be no disappearing into the vestry at the end of the service to sign the marriage registers because all that will already have been done.

One of the most pleasurable and satisfying parts of my job is helping couples to plan their wedding. There's something quite special about the rainbow range of services we get involved with. The conveyor belt feel is done away with and they can be individually tailored.

No one would ever wish to claim that God is locked in the church. He's by the swimming pool, at the large country hotel and on the beach. Perhaps future generations may well see this sociological shift in wedding locations as a way of liberating God into the world he created and loves.