A discussion following a recent post mentioned the fact that Latter-day Saint officials had not been permitted to perform legal marriages in England until well into the 20th century. They had long performed wedding services for Church members who wished to make vows in their own chapels with their own faith members present, but those services had no force in the eyes of the British government – English Saints still had to go before a civil officer or a minister of another church with legal authority in order to establish a legally binding marriage.

That began to change late in 1934, when the Latter-day Saint chapel at Manchester was authorized as a place where legal marriage ceremonies could be performed. Below is the announcement in the Millennial Star alerting the Saints to that giant leap forward in Church recognition.

For American readers who may not be aware of differences in English and American law, legally binding marriages cannot be performed today in the temples in England not because the Church isn’t somehow recognized as a real church, but because English law requires that legal weddings be open to the public, presumably so that anyone with knowledge of a legal impediment to the marriage can be present and speak. Since temples are not open to the public, marriages recognized by the State cannot be performed there. Sealing ceremonies, of course, do not fall under State control and are conducted as they are in any other temple where the participants acknowledge the validity of the sealing authority.

Permission Granted for Solemnizing Marriages

Church members throughout the mission will be pleased to know that permission has been at last granted for the solemnizing of marriages in a Latter-day Saint chapel in England. An application for such privilege in behalf of the Manchester chapel was honoured by the Superintendent Registrar of the Manchester Parish, and a certificate of registry issued on October 22nd. In the Manchester chapel may now be performed a legal and binding marriage ceremony by anyone who is duly empowered and delegated to do so by the president of the British Mission.

The Manchester chapel is the first of the church-owned buildings in the British Mission to be granted a certificate of this kind. Heretofore, although a couple might be married by the mission president or by another to whom was delegated the authority to perform the Church ceremony, it was required by law that an additional ceremony be solemnized by a civil authority. With the granting of the certificate of registry, however, a ceremony performed in the Manchester chapel, under the direction of the mission president, will suffice to make a marriage legal.

Although the fact that the church may now solemnize marriages in England is itself worthy of more than passing comment, a deeper significance attaches to the granting of the privilege. For it is indicative that the prejudice and discriminations which have confronted the Church one very side to delay and postpone the time when it might take its true place in the communities of the British Isles, are fast giving way to a wholesome respect and sincere appreciation for the Church and its work. In the place of misunderstanding has come the realization that the Church of Christ of Latter-day Saints deserves acknowledgment as a fully accredited institution, denied none of the privileges, powers, and prerogatives that are granted by law or custom to institutions of a similar nature.

The registration of the Manchester chapel is just a beginning. It is to be expected that the remainder of the church-owned chapels of the British mission will soon be accorded the same privilege, which should result in more firmly establishing them as integral parts of the communities in which they stand, and, thus established, in giving them greater opportunity to foster the activities of the Church and to spread the Message that has the power to enrich every life.

–(Millennial Star, 15 November 1934, 729-730)

The photograph is the chapel in Manchester used at this era.