Press Release dated : 14th March 2013
St. Ninian’s and St. Andrew’s United Reformed Church on Chanterlands Avenue in Hull has applied, through its Trustees, to Hull City Council for its building to be registered to conduct Civil Partnerships.
It believes that it is the only church in the area to be offering this service, and the first United Reformed Church in Yorkshire to do so.
The United Reformed Church General Assembly meeting in Scarborough in 2012 decided that each local congregation could discuss the issue and come to a mind on it. The Elders of the church had been discussing the issue for some time, and they brought a strong recommendation to the Church Meeting which wholeheartedly accepted the recommendation.
The Yorkshire Synod of the URC is currently helping local churches with a campaign of “Generous Hospitality”, and St. Ninian’s and St. Andrew’s believes that we should recognise before God all loving relationships.
The Hull and East Yorkshire LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Group has been consulted, and fully backs our action. Councillors and Officers of Hull City Council have been most helpful and co-operative in making this work.
Any couple who wishes to have their Civil Partnership blessed in church can contact the church’s minister. He will meet with you and discuss the procedure. The Civil Partnership can be signed at the church after which a service of blessing will take place which will have many of the elements of a marriage service.
For couples who have had a Civil Partnership already at the Register Office, they may wish to have their union blessed perhaps on a significant anniversary.
Revd. Simon Swailes
124, Westbourne Avenue, Hull HU5 3HZ
Tel 01482 444173 / 07903968162
swailes124@swailes124.karoo.co.uk
