Christian Marriage is a gift of God and a sacrament of his Church. It should be entered into with thoughtfulness and prayer. Please speak to the clergy if you are contemplating getting married and are hop­ing to have your mar­riage ser­vice in St Matthias. Cer­tain rules apply which can be discussed.

You can arrange to get mar­ried at St Matthias if (see fur­ther explan­a­tion and advice below)

  • neither you nor the per­son you hope to marry are sub­ject to immig­ra­tion con­trols and / or have over­stayed your visa; and
  • you meet the Church of England’s rules for being con­nec­ted to the par­ish church in which you would like to get married.

If one of these cri­teria seems to be a prob­lem in your case, don’t panic. Read the inform­a­tion below and feel free to con­tact us if you need to know more. We will require doc­u­ment­ary proof of these things and may have to refer you to other agen­cies or author­it­ies (such as the Regis­trar or the Home Office) in case of doubt, par­tic­u­larly with regard to immig­ra­tion status.

How do we know if we are ‘con­nec­ted’ enough to St Matthias to marry there?

You can marry in a Church of Eng­land church such as St Matthias if you can show that one of you:

  • has at any time lived in the par­ish for a period of at least six months or
  • was Bap­tized in the par­ish con­cerned or
  • was pre­pared for Con­firm­a­tion in the par­ish or
  • has at any time reg­u­larly gone to nor­mal church ser­vices in the par­ish church for a period of at least six months or

that one of your par­ents, at any time after you were born:

  • has lived in the par­ish for a period of at least six months or
  • has reg­u­larly gone to nor­mal church ser­vices in the par­ish church for a period of at least six months or

that one of your par­ents or grandparents:

  • was mar­ried in the parish.

What does ‘in the par­ish’ mean?

Each Church of Eng­land church serves an area called a par­ish. It has fixed bound­ar­ies and you can check which par­ish you live in by vis­it­ing http://www.achurchnearyou.com/ and search­ing with your post­code. Because of the vari­ety in size and shape of par­ishes, the Church of Eng­land church you are nearest may not be your par­ish church, espe­cialy in large cities.

How much does it cost?

Fees are levied for Wed­dings, but they are rel­at­ively small in the con­text of the aver­age cost of a wed­ding, recep­tion and hon­ey­moon. Some of these are set by the author­it­ies; some are set by the par­ish. Those wish­ing to be mar­ried at St Matthias will be asked to make a com­mit­ment to reg­u­lar wor­ship as part of their pre­par­a­tion for Chris­tian Marriage.

Banns of Marriage

If you live in the par­ish of St Matthias, Stoke Newington but are get­ting mar­ried else­where, you will prob­ably be required by the Vicar of that church to ‘get your Banns read’ at St Matthias. This is straight­for­ward to arrange. Please con­tact us to arrange an appoint­ment to do the neces­sary paperwork.

I (or my part­ner) are sub­ject to immig­ra­tion con­trols or have over­stayed a visa

The Church of Eng­land is obliged to uphold the law as to who can marry in the UK, which includes the visa status of non-EU cit­izens and the Immig­ra­tion Act 2004. People who enter the UK on a visa and wish to marry an EU cit­izen must have per­mis­sion to do so as part of thier visa, and their visa must be cur­rent. Mar­ry­ing in the Church of Eng­land is not a way of evad­ing the require­ments of the law or the con­sequences of hav­ing over­stayed a visa, because the legal reqire­ments must be sat­is­fied before the mar­riage can take place.

We advise any­one who wishes to seek to get mar­ried at St Matthias, or any other Church of Eng­land par­ish church to resolve any immig­ra­tion and other visa issues before approach­ing us. You may have to be referred to the Super­in­tend­ent Regis­trar or the Home Office to obtain the cor­rect paper­work and permissions.

Further Information on Church of England Weddings can be found here.