Churches ‘should respond’ to rise in ‘New Age’ weddings

A quarter of all weddings that took place in Ireland last year were broadly ‘New Age’ in character, while Christian ceremonies declined to just over a third of the total.

That’s according to research published by the Iona Institute using findings culled from CSO data.

The paper shows that Catholic weddings accounted for 91.4pc of the total in 1994 and last year this had fallen to just 34.3pc of all ceremonies

Church of Ireland weddings fell in that time from 2.6pc of the total to 1.1pc

Weddings performed by ‘Entheos Ireland’, the ‘Spiritualist Union of Ireland’, and other, similar organisations account for almost a quarter of the total and rising.

The author of the paper, Breda O’Brien said unless the Churches find a way to respond, “the present trends will probably worsen from their point of view and will very likely extend to funerals as well in due course.”

Noting that many couples still want “a spiritual dimension” to their weddings, she said this “provides an opportunity for the Churches”.

She recommended a rethink of practices, such as rules regarding venues.