Church and partners

Your editorial ( Civil partnerships: Questions for the church , 15 December) misses a vital point. The government proposal concerns the registration of civil partnerships in religious premises. Permitting such a step is a non sequitur, given that there exists no provision for the registration of civil marriages in religious premises. A civil marriage ceremony (in a register office) may be followed, in some circumstances, by a service of blessing, but the registration is both a civil and exclusively non-religious ceremony. As far as I am aware, the same is true of a civil partnership. Opposition to the government's proposal rested properly on the basis of its illogicality and not on the basis of any offence to equality or hostility to homosexuality. As and when the churches seriously address whether there can be such a thing as "gay marriage", the questions posed will have sharper relevance. Rt Rev John Davies Bishop of Swansea and Brecon