Registrar

[Flute56]

I am not getting married but I wanted to come on here to ask about something

A friend of mine is getting married and he belongs to a church but he has told me that he needs to speak to the registrar to fix up the date for the wedding

You can ask it

I could not understand why he is speaking to a registrar if he belongs to a church because I assumed that if you are in a church then the vicar or minister can do the wedding and you don't need a registrar because I have never been to any church wedding where the registrar does the wedding it's usually the minister of the church but he has told me that he does not have anybody in his church who can do the wedding and I thought what about the pastor because surely the pastor of the church can do it and the only time I have ever known anybody use a registrar is when it's a non-church wedding and you are not religious and you go to a register office

Have a look at this explanation on the Surrey council website:

www.surreycc.gov.uk/birth-death-and-ceremonies/ceremonies/your-wedding/other-information/marriage-in-a-church-or-religious-building

Read the bit at the bottom titled "Any other religious building registered for marriage"

If the religious building where they want to get married doesn't have an authorised person, then they need to book a registrar.

I see what you mean. I'd expect the priest or minister (depending on denomination) to lead the ceremony. But it depends if they're authorised to legally register marriages. It can also depend on the venue they choose to use.

A legal registrar is required at all weddings, I had a catholic wedding many years ago but we still needed a registrar present.. so we did the religious part in church and then signed the legal part in the sacristy part way through to make it official.
We'd had to go and register the time/date of the wedding when we gave notice and our registrar was a parishioner so didn't feel strange and most churches have someone that can perform the role.

You can be a religious person and still have a non-church wedding. Perhaps the person you are marrying is not religious or belongs to a different faith than you. In that case, it may still be possible for you to have a religious ceremony (sometimes construed as that the non-believing partner is a 'witness' to their own wedding, boggling as that sounds), but perhaps not or they might not want to.

I get all of that but what I don't understand is the church I go to have had weddings and I have known the people who have got married and one person from the church who is quite a close friend of mine did not approach a registrar the only person she approached was the Minister of the church and said I would like to get married can you marry me and he said yes I can and they sat down and discussed dates no registrar was involved that is why I don't understand

If you read the document from Surrey CC it gives you all the rules.
C of E church you don't need a registrar.
All other denominations you might.

All I know is that I belong to a methodist church and anybody who got married there don't need a registrar

Yes, but some other kinds of churches aren't allowed to perform legal marriages and so you would need to book a registrar for those. It's not a complicated concept.

You say you get all that but evidently you don't. As above, not all ministers have the authority to do the registration bit of the marriage. Some can do the religious ceremony but not the signing the register bit, others can do both. It's unclear why you are bothered and why it matters. Just be happy for your friend and wish them well in their marriage.

A church building has to be licensed to perform weddings. If it is not licensed you cannot get married there.
Once a church building is licensed, the church can either use a local registrar to register the marriage which will be conducted by the pastor
Or the church can apply to have their own authorised person to register the marriage alongside the pastor.
If the church is CofE, they are entirely independent and don't ever use a registrar.

It sounds like your friends church is licensed but doesn't have their own authorised person.

That's because the Minister will be an Authorised Person to register the paperwork for a legal marriage.

He doesn't belong to a church which can conduct a legal by law marriage. So a registrar is needed.