Doncaster set for its first gay church wedding

The Rev Tom McCready has confirmed the Unitarian Church, on Hallgate, will be holding what is thought to be the first service of its sort in any of the borough's churches.

It is expected to be held in the next three months at the venue, after the committee that runs the church voted late last year to accept same sex couples weddings.

The Rev McCready said he believed there were other churches which had agreed to hold gay weddings, but it was understood that his was due to be the first to go ahead and hold a service.

He has already carried a number of blessings for gay marriages.

He said: “We have a couple who have been together three or four years who have put the paperwork into the register office. They are both women.

“We also have another couple, again both women, who are due to be married in the summer of 2020, who want to be married on the 10th anniversary of their getting together as a couple.

“I have already done three blessings for same sex relationships. That was a very similar service, except without the legal bit, asking if anyone knows any lawful impediment why the couple should not be married.”

He said he believed any doubters on the committee had been won over after he carried out a blessing for a seriously ill woman and her same sex partner, who was married in a hospital bed in her own home. She died several days later.

He described the Unitarian church as a liberal and inclusive form of Christianity that reached out to all religions.

Rev McCready and wife Briggitte both joined the Doncaster Pride march last summer, and felt it was a good, family friendly event.

He is also looking to carry out a large scale blessing for same sex couples during Doncaster Pride this year.