THE Church of England conducted fewer weddings than ever in 2023, as the number of people in England and Wales getting married in religious ceremonies slumped to a new low.
In 2023, 23,004 marriages were recorded by the Church of England and Church in Wales, according to data released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) on Tuesday. It is the lowest number since the 1830s, except for 2020, when churches were closed during the pandemic, and wedding numbers across the country were fewer than half the rolling average.
In total, 216,901 weddings of opposite-sex couples took place in 2023, a drop from 239,097 the previous year. The majority (184,428) were civil ceremonies.
There were 32,473 religious weddings, of which 70 per cent were held in Anglican churches. This is a slight drop from 2022, when, out of 41,824 weddings, the Church of England or Church in Wales officiated 30,784.
The largest single denomination to conduct opposite-sex religious weddings in 2023, after the Church in England, was the Roman Catholic Church, which conducted 3303. Other Christian denominations conducted a further 3629 marriages, and there were 2537 non-Christian religious ceremonies.
There were also 7501 same-sex marriages in England and Wales in 2023, of which 96 were religious ceremonies. Neither the Church of England or Church in Wales currently permits same-sex weddings.
In September, the Governing Body of the Church in Wales discussed whether to move towards “equal marriage”, but no decision has yet been announced (News, 26 September).
Any path towards same-sex marriage in the Church of England looks to have been obstructed by the decision of the House of Bishops to subject stand-alone services of blessing for same-sex couples to further synodical processes (News, 17 October).
The Methodist and United Reformed churches both conduct same-sex weddings in England and Wales.
The Bishop of Manchester, Dr David Walker, was quoted in the Daily Telegraph as encouraging couples to “just ask” at a church about getting married. “We want to reassure couples that they don’t have to be churchgoers to have a church wedding, they don’t need to be christened, and we welcome couples who already have children.”
