VERSION|0.5.1|SUBJECT|Rev Canon Angela Tilby, Christchurch Cathedral Oxford  |CONTENT|[b]Rating[/b] 3 out of 5 (Fairly platitudinous)

[url=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130516.html][img=images/2013/05/pic130516.jpg popup=false float=right][/url]And in the news today, people are still getting married. (Besides, there was nothing good on the telly last night, so I have to find something else to talk about.)

Has anyone ever mentioned [url=http://www.platitudes.org.uk/platblog/index.php?entry=entry100804-084426]weddings on TFTD[/url]? Have they mentioned that they cost £20,000? Have they mentioned how superficial all that extravagance is? Have they? Because if they haven't, I think it's about time somebody did mention it, don't you? I'm going to go ahead and mention it because I don't think anyone's mentioned it before.

Oddly enough, almost all the weddings I see at the Cathedral are expensive church weddings. No one ever seems to just turn up at the church and ask for a quick one over lunch. Civil partnerships don't seem to bother turning up at all.

If they weren't paying us [url=http://www.churchofengland.org/weddings-baptisms-funerals/fees.aspx]over £400[/url] plus extras for heating, a verger, music, bells, and flowers, I really would have some words with the happy couple about all this needless expense. All this money being spent on dresses, suit hire, grand receptions, honeymoons and presents, that's money that could be used on something more useful. The Church, just picking an example at random, could do with a much bigger share of the profits from the wedding industry.

The ceremony for church weddings is in the prayer book, which is an odd place to find it. It comes after confirmation and before death. That's roughly the order things happen in. Most people die [i]after[/i] they get married, not before. Marrying someone who's already dead is unlikely to provide a very satisfactory marriage, even if it does avoid all those arguments about who had the car keys last.

You don't have to spend all that needless money on things other than the church. If you want to have a long and happy marriage, I recommend marrying someone you love.

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0193ygg]Listen/Read[/url]|CATEGORIES|42|IP-ADDRESS|94.168.119.214|DATE|1368691605|CREATEDBY|admin
