Same-sex couples may soon be allowed to use religious marriage ceremonies in places of worship when entering into civil partnerships in the UK, a Cabinet Minister has revealed.

Lynne Featherstone, the Equalities minister, said in a written Parliamentary answer on Wednesday that the Coalition Government is looking at allowing same-sex couples to use “religious readings, music and symbols” in civil partnership ceremonies.

Parliament in the UK removed the bar on same-sex unions in churches and other places of worship through an amendment to Labour’s Equality Act earlier this year.

This further proposed changed would make same-sex civil unions almost indistinguishable from traditional marriage

The proposals have drawn criticism from mainstream Christian leaders who believe marriage can only take place between a man and a woman.

Church of England sources warned that the Government could not make such dramatic changes merely by issuing regulations or guidance, as the current Civil Partnership Act prohibits the use of religious services during the registrations.

A spokesman made it clear that senior figures in the established faith would resist any moves effectively to legalise homosexual marriage.

The Rt Rev Michael Langrish, the Bishop of Exeter, added in a personal statement: “As some of us warned at the time, the amendment to the Equality Bill has opened an area of unhelpful doubt and confusion. The Church of England will not be allowing use of any of its buildings for civil partnership registrations.”

Lord Tebbit, a former Tory party chairman who spoke out against same-sex unions in churches in the Lords, said: “I wouldn’t want anything done to add to the pretence that a civil partnership is a marriage. That’s the key thing, and anything which changes the law would have to come back to the Lords.

In 2005, same-sex couples in Britain were allowed for the first time to take part in ceremonies that made them civil partners.

This gave them similar legal rights to married spouses, but the law required the events to take place in register offices or approved venues such as hotels and stately homes.

The ceremony has had to be secular, with no hymns or Bible readings, in order to preserve the definition of religious marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

However, earlier this year, during the debate over the Equality Bill, an amendment was added by Lord Alli that permitted civil partnership ceremonies to take place in places of worship if the relevant religious group permitted it.

Quakers, Unitarians and the Liberal Judaism movement will ask to be allowed to host the ceremonies but the Church of England will resist it, despite the wishes of some liberal clerics, as will the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales.

Registrars provided by local councils would still have to conduct civil partnership ceremonies.

No changes to the content of the ceremonies were proposed in the Lords, and in a parliamentary written answer last month, it was made clear that they must remain “entirely secular in nature” and cannot contain “any religious language”.

However, in a Parliamentary written answer to Chris Bryant, the ex-Labour minister and former Anglican priest, it emerged that the Coalition is considering moving further towards legalising full homosexual marriage as it draws up the regulations on how civil partnerships can be held in places of worship.