|PIC1|Belfast was the scene for Britain’s first “gay marriage” today, which went ahead despite large protests and objections taking place from Catholic and Evangelical Christians that have given the stark warning that such civil partnerships would lead to an eventual break-down in families and society.

Belfast City Hall, in Northern Ireland, saw the first civil partnerships become law. However, in England and Scotland the Civil Partnership Acts will not allow gay couples to join until Wednesday. Rumours have suggested that some 700 homosexual couples would have formed civil partnerships by that time.

The new civil partnership law will give gay couples the same property and inheritance rights as married heterosexuals and entitles them to the same pension, immigration and tax benefits. However, unlike in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Canada it is not a marriage.

A statement released by the Evangelical Alliance in early December stated: “The Alliance believes there can never be moral equivalence between marriage and same-sex partnerships, even if legal equivalence is established.”

Don Horrocks, head of public affairs for the EAUK, said such a push for gay rights eventually takes away from the rights of those who may have a Christian perspective on marriage. He said, “It needs to be remembered that one group’s rights often involves another’s inequality.”

Another senior British clergyman has spoken out against the Civil Partnerships Act. Rev Peter Smith, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff said, “What the Government should do in terms of public policy is support marriage rather than undermine it. To put beside marriage an alternative or what appears to be a perfectly approved legal alternative lifestyle I think does not help the institution of marriage at all.”

|QUOTE|Reports are saying that Britain is expecting some 16,000 homosexual couples to use the new law by 2010.

The Church of England over the past few months has come under heavy criticism for its compromise on the position bishops should take towards the new laws.

The Evangelical Council, which is the umbrella organisation for the evangelical groups within the Church, demanded in August that the Church’s attempts to compromise with the government’s civil partnerships legislation should be withdrawn immediately.

The council spoke out on 10th August 2005 against the decision by the Church of England Council of Bishops that clergy would be allowed to enter civil partnerships, just as long as they informed their supervising bishop that they would abstain from partaking in sexual relations with their partner.

|TOP|In a clear and formal statement, the Evangelical Council criticised the Church’s leaders of submitting to the secular culture of moral decline. The council was recorded as saying, “We urge the House of Bishops to withdraw this compromised and unworkable statement while continuing to affirm the historic teaching of the church ... It will further exacerbate the division threatening the future of the Anglican Communion.”

Last month the Reform National Conference ended with members being told that the Pastoral Statement issued by the House of Bishops regarding the Church position on the Civil Partnerships Act was an “outrage”, according to Anglican Mainstream.

In October, the Nigerian Anglican leader, Archbishop Akinola used similar language to describe the House of Bishops statement, also calling it an outrage.

"As of now, we have not yet reached the point of schism, but there's a broken relationship," Archbishop Peter Akinola told reporters.

|AD|The Church of England’s House of Bishops has already announced on 25 July that gay priests who register same-sex partnerships under a new civil law will be accepted as long as they remain celibate.

Archbishop Akinola has said that there are still hopes of recovering church unity if liberal churches that were supporting homosexuality showed “repentance”, according to AP.

Through the Global South grouping of churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the Nigerian Anglican Church with its 17.5 million members has been taking on a leading role to oppose Church acceptance of homosexuality.

The churches in Nigeria and Uganda whose leaders have firmly opposed the direction that the Church of England has taken on the issue of homosexuality, have already cut their relations with the U.S Episcopal Church after it consecrated a gay bishop in 2003.

The relationship with Canada’s Anglican Church was also ended after the blessing of same-sex marriages were approved.

Issues on homosexuality in the Church have deeply scarred the Anglican Communion. Akinola said, “Why should England be spared?”

The controversy is likely to intensify later this week when Civil Partnerships begin taking place in England and Scotland. So far, approximately 1,200 homosexual couples are thought to have registered to become Civil Partners.