#which means that i think uniquely among churches in England? we appoint our own registrars rather than having to use state registrars | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thedreadvampy · 1 year

Text

not very related but every time I think about LGBTQ progress I think about the equal marriage act (the most high profile legal change since I've been politically aware)

and then I think about sitting with my housemate (later girlfriend. later ex) on her bed in 2012 watching and livetweeting the equal marriage debates in parliament.

and then I think about the person who tweeted, in response to a point being made about the diversity of opinions on the matter in the Christian faith and specifically the firm pro-equality stances taken by the Quakers and the Unitarian Church; "Unitarians aren't real Christians and Quakerism is witchcraft"

"Quakerism is witchcraft" has lived rent-free in my mind for over a decade. my two favourite callbacks to make with friends about my religion are "Quakers ritually bathe in oats" and "Quakerism is witchcraft."

#red said #i can never remember who the other church was bc i mix up unitarians and united reform #even though the urc dragged its feet on same sex marriage into 2017 #anyway i don't think it's just my internal perspective that the Quakers were brought up more during the debate #i think maybe cause the Unitarians had been on board for longer and the Quaker commitment came in 2009 #also bc Quakers are a relatively politically high profile group #like the three faith groups that came up throughout the debate as specifically pro equal marriage #were the Quakers the Unitarians and the Liberal Jews #who i think were the three who most unilaterally took equal marriage as organisational policy #for Quakers in 2009 we agreed to just start recording all marriages equally anyway and sending the paperwork to the government #even though they didn't have the legislation to recognise it #which is a thing we could do bc there's a peculiarity in law stemming from 18th century ghettoisation of Quaker communities #which means that i think uniquely among churches in England? we appoint our own registrars rather than having to use state registrars #and Quaker marriage registration uses different paperwork and processes decided by the Quaker National Meeting #so we write and witness our own paperwork then send it off to the government to make it legally recognised #whereas all other religious weddings you have to bring a civil registrar to fill out a standardised registry form #so. we had a legal capacity that other groups didn't to just say Hey Fuck You We're Going To Marry Them Anyway #and 2009-2013 the government just had to deal with getting sent marriages that were validly registered but not legally recognisable

20 notes · View notes