The Bishop of Shrewsbury has issued a forthright defence of the Christian vocation to marriage, insisting at a homily in Chester that the institution is not simply a ‘lifestyle choice’ but part of God’s plan for humanity since the beginning of time.

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The Rt Rev. Mark Davies told couples celebrating landmark milestone in their marriages Jesus Christ completed revelation from the Old Testament by ‘restoring and raising’ marriage to the high dignity of a Sacrament.

As a result, the Church has always ‘sought to defend against everything that diminishes or discards God’s plan and purpose in marriage,’ Bishop Davies said at the annual Mass in celebration of married life at St Columba’s Church on Saturday June 13.

Bishop Davies said: ‘If marriage was in some eras viewed as merely conventional, the Church insisted it was much more: a Divine vocation, demanding the free consent and the equal dignity of man and woman.  When marriage was in danger of being reduced to merely a legal contract, the Church declared with Saint Paul that marriage between the Baptised is a great Sacrament, “an efficacious sign of Christ’s presence” among us for the salvation of the couple and for the highest good of family and society.  

‘In more recent times when the faithfulness of the promises of marriage was called into question, the Church defended the unbreakable fidelity on which marriage and family is established.  When ‘anti-life’ mentalities denied even openness to the gift of new life, the Church taught at the Second Vatican Council that “by its very nature the institution of marriage and married love is ordered to the procreation and education of children, and it is in them it finds its crowning glory”.

‘When politicians sought to re-define the identity of marriage, the Church declared the plan of the Creator from the beginning as “written in the very nature of man and woman”. When marriage was reduced in the minds of many to a ‘life-style choice’, the Church taught anew that the faithful, enduring love of man and woman is the foundation of the family and so of human society.  For in St John Paul II’s immortal words: “the future of humanity passes by way of the family.”

‘The Church has constantly sought to pass on in all her teaching the beautiful truth about marriage in every era whether this has been welcome or unwelcome.  Yet, it is married couples themselves who have visibly taught and shared this great truth with each successive generation by their own joyful witness, generous sacrifices and faithful perseverance, making each couple “the first teachers of the faith” about marriage in every home, family and community.’

Bishop Davies reminded the congregation of the vital importance of sharing the truth of marriage with the new generation of young adults coming into the Church in recent years often coming from no religious background.    

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Mr Beyer recalled how the couple met in 1964 at a beach party in Bournemouth, where they lived at the time. He was 20 years old and Janet was 18.

‘One year later we got engaged and two years later we got married,’ he said.

They went on to have four children and now also have eight grandchildren.

Another 12 couples were celebrating 60 years of marriage while two celebrate 70 years of marriage and one 65 years of marriage.  Some couples present were celebrating only their first wedding anniversary.  In his opening remarks, Bishop Davies observed that together the couples attending the Mass have amassed 2,299 years of marriage.

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