Bishop begins bid to change law on marriage registration in England and Wales

From ACNS-

A change in the law to allow the names of couples’ mothers to be included in the official registers of marriages in England and Wales is a step closer after a Church of England bishop successfully steered a Bill through its second reading in the House of Lords – the upper house of the British Parliament. At present, marriage registers include only the name of the couple’s fathers. The Bishop of St Albans, Alan Smith, described this as “a clear and historic injustice” and “an archaic practice and unchanged since Victorian times, when children were seen as a father’s property and little consideration was given to a mother’s role in raising them.”

Bishop Alan is one of 26 Church of England bishops in the House of Lords: The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishops of London, Durham and Winchester are the five senior member of the Bishops’ Benches. The other 21 places are taken by diocesan bishops in order of seniority, with a temporary transitional measure which sees qualifying female bishops placed higher in the succession list. This afternoon, Bishop Alan became the first bishop to steer a Bill – draft legislation – through its second reading stage in more than 30 years. It now progresses to the detailed clause-by-clause committee stage.

More here-

http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2018/01/bishop-begins-bid-to-change-law-on-marriage-registration-in-england-and-wales.aspx