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.

‍

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.    

‍

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.

‍

Yet according to the Marriage Foundation, Britain has the highest level of family breakdown in recorded history and among the highest in Europe.

Research by the charity has found that 45 per cent of teens are not living with both natural parents. The Deaton poverty review found a similar figure of 43 per cent. The figures represent a fivefold increase from 9 per cent in 1974.

The direct consequences of family breakdown include poverty, higher risk of mental health problems, poor exam results and an annual bill to the taxpayer of about £64 billion a year, a sum almost as high as the UK defence budget (£66 billion).

The Marriage Foundation forecasts the crisis of family breakdown to get worse because of the intergenerational transmission of family breakdown and because there is no sign of an upturn in marriage rates.

The driver of family breakdown is not divorce, which is now at its lowest level since 1970, but the collapse of unmarried families. Married families account for 85 per cent of intact parents yet just 30 per cent of family breakdown. The poorest married parents are statistically more stable than even the richest cohabitees.

The Government this month announced proposals, however, to further downgrade the status of marriage by extending inheritance and other rights to cohabitees, while failing to do anything to promote the benefits of marriage.

In parallel with the collapse of marriage is a collapse in the birth rate and a surge in the abortion rate to a record high.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics have revealed meanwhile that in 2025 births in England and Wales fell for the fourth year in a row to their lowest level in nearly half a century.

Last year there were 585,000 live births, a fall of 10,000 on the previous year, and the lowest overall figure since 1977.

The fall represents a drop in the Total Fertility Rate from 1.41 children per woman in 2024 to 1.39 in 2025. The replacement fertility level, by which a population replicates itself, is 2.1 children per woman.

Abortion statistics released by the Department of Health and Social Care in January showed the highest number of abortions ever recorded in England and Wales, with 278,740 taking place in 2023, an increase of 26,618 (10.56 per cent) from 2022.

‍