The Church of England has reaffirmed its belief that forced marriage is wrong both morally and legally.

Responding to a Home Office consultation on 'marriage to partners from overseas', the Rt Rev Tom Butler, Bishop of Southwark, said the Mission and Public Affairs Council strongly affirmed that principle, as reflected in the consultation document, and agreed that the minimum age that someone could sponsor a marriage partner from abroad or be sponsored as a spouse should be raised to 21 years.

"The practice of forcing one of the partners to marry in order to be able to sponsor a marriage visa and gain immigration advantage cannot be justified and is to be strongly condemned," said the bishop.

"We support policy that is most likely to give protection to those who most need it."

He said that the idea of personal consent was key to the Christian understandings of marriage.

"The Christian description of marriage as a voluntary union for life between one woman and one man, to the exclusion of all others, has its roots in the early biblical stories in Genesis," said Bishop Butler.

"Marriage has been understood in the Christian tradition as a sign of the love between Christ and his Church, which is freely given, not forced. Therefore what essentially makes a true marriage in the Christian understanding is the couple's voluntary consent to a lifelong monogamous union.

"The Church of England is committed to marriage preparation and that couples fully understand the vows they are taking. As the Anglican Marriage service states, no one should enter into marriage lightly or selfishly but reverently and responsibly.

We recognise that there may be some young people who are vulnerable to pressure from families to sponsor a partner and we believe that good marriage preparation would detect whether a young person was entering into marriage for the right reasons.

"There is a strong case for increased resources for marriage preparation, education and counselling for groups working with those most at risk of being exploited, particularly if there were a risk of unintended consequences."