The banns

To get married in a Church of England church you need to meet certain criteria. Ironically this does not include being religious. It does however require a link to the parish in which you would like to be married. I easily fulfil the criteria for marrying in tredington as I was able to claim three connections to the parish/ church. My grandparents lived there, my parents married there and I was christened there. These were more than sufficient to allow us to avail ourselves of the church for our wedding. In days gone by this would not have been the case and one would have needed to personally live in the parish and be able to provide proof of this, or else be required to procure a special licence. One  would also have been required to attend marriage classes with the minister and to regularly attend the church, most particularly in the run up to the wedding. 

Most of these rules have now been relaxed but one antiquated tradition remains. That tradition is that in order to be allowed to proceed with the marriage ceremony there must first be the reading of the banns. The banns announce the intention of a couple to marry and are read in the church where the marriage will take place and in the church of the parish where they live. They are read three times in the run up to the wedding, normally on consecutive Sundays and in the days when everybody went to church, easily broadcast to those who knew the couple that they were intending to wed, thus allowing people who knew of any lawful impediment to the marriage taking place to raise their objections. I don't believe this now forms part of the ceremony but the reading of the banns continues. 

While the minister who is to marry us has arranged for the reading of the banns in the parish where the ceremony will take place, we had to arrange for the banns in the parish we have just moved to. This is all very well but as just mentioned we have only just moved there and thus time is of the essence. It is particularly tight as the parish church is very small and does not hold devices every Sunday. It seems though that we have just snuck in in time and tomorrow we will be heading to the local rectory to arrange for the banns to be read at our local church. Here's hoping nobody raises any objections!

Just 80 days now...