friendsfirst Press Releases

PRESS RELEASE 

12 January 2006

MARRIAGES BETWEEN CHURCHES ON THE INCREASE

Although theologians may continue to disagree about many issues - at grass roots level - more and more Christians from different denominations are marrying each other.

That is the finding of Christian Introduction agency friendsfirst, on the eve of the  annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity  which takes place from 18 to 25 January.

The agency which has recently been contacted by their 10,000th enquirer, has been responsible for 31 marriages in the last six years, and currently has three new engagements on their books and nine more in the pipe line.

They have discovered that while most members felt it was extremely important that a potential marriage partner was a Christian - their denomination mattered much less.

Diane, an Anglican who is marrying a Catholic this summer, said: Personally I didn’t want to get involved with someone from another faith, as there could be great cultural differences in our families and so forth.  

 
I wanted to meet a Christian, so we could start with a common outlook and way of thinking. I was looking for someone with an exploratory mind, someone who worked things out rather than being too dogmatic.

Peter, an Anglican, who met his fiancée, who belongs to a Pentecostal church, through friendsfirst, echoed this view. He said: Obviously I joined a Christian agency because I was looking for a fellow Christian to share my life with. But other issues seemed more important, like: is she a kind person? Will we like each other’s families, share the same taste in music and holidays? Our faith was a given.  We take turns going to each other’s churches together.

Katharine Gray, director of friendsfirst said: Denomination was much more of an issue in the past, but nowadays, perhaps because there are fewer Christians, or perhaps because Christians are becoming more accepting of each other - most people seem able to consider a relationship with someone from another denomination.

For further details, please contact Katharine Gray on 0121 427 1286.

Notes for Editors

Katharine Gray established friendsfirst in October 1999 to meet the needs of many single Christians across the country who may feel isolated from other single Christians. There is a growing number of single Christians in the UK, who are remaining single for longer because of work commitments and social lives which are not conducive to meeting sufficient Christians of the opposite sex outside of their immediate contemporaries in their own churches.

Name: Friendsfirst. The service is called friendsfirst because the philosophy behind it is that friendships are vitally important and are at the heart of any good and meaningful relationship. Friendship should ideally be the foundation for anything else that may develop after a period of time.

Successes

To date there have been 31 marriages and 3  engagements between ‘friendsfirst’ members.  These couples span every age group including couples in their 60’s and 70’s. The couples involved come from the following area’s Dudley, Tamworth, Essex, Liverpool, Manchester, Rugby, Wigan, Bolton, Birmingham, Bath, Cambridge, Darlington, Sheffield, Basingstoke, Bedfordshire, Cheltenham, Malvern, Walsall, Solihull, Cornwall, Stamford, Preston, Halesowen, Wolverhampton, Cambridge, Loughton, Essex, Somerset, Wiltshire, Cheshire, Lancs, Belper, Leicester, Chesterfield, Halifx, Worcester, Nottingham, Tring, Lincoln, Maidstone, Loughborough, Stirling, Bristol, Basildon, Windsor, Didcot, Leicester, Stirling, London.