After receiving feed-back about this CathNews sought clarification from Internal Affairs.

CathNews was informed that the following approved organisations, which are listed in the schedule in Part 2 Section 8 of the Marriage Act 1955 (as amended on May 3 2017), are exempt and are not required to pay any fee to be registered as marriage celebrants.

• Anglican
• Baptist
• Greek Orthodox Church
• Hebrew Congregations
• Lutheran Church of New Zealand
• Methodist
• Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa NZ
• Roman Catholic
• Salvation Army

CathNews regrets the error.

(Note: This post has been updated to correct some errors.)

They will also have to pay an annual fee of $60.00 to renew their registration.

Ministers of recognised religions are exempt.

Up until now the cost of registering is covered by couples when they pay their marriage-licence fee.

But the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Jeff Montgomery, said since marriage celebrants are providing a professional service they should pay their own fees.

There are 10,000 registered marriage celebrants

• The 75% who are from religious bodies conduct 26% of the 20,000 marriages and civil unions that take place each year.
• The 24% who are independent marriage celebrants conducted 52% of the services.
• The the remaining services are held at registry offices.

Too many independent marriage celebrants
The department also wants to cut down on the number of independent celebrants who conduct one or less marriages a year.

Montgomery said about half of the nearly 2500 independent celebrants fall into this category

He said couples often complained there were too many listed on the department's website who simply were not available.

However an independent celebrant, Bill Logan, said some people just wanted to perform a few marriages for people they knew and loved.

"Some kind of licence which authorises them to do a few ceremonies, would be perfectly adequate, but it's not necessary for them to pay $60 a year," he said.

Who ends up paying?
Montgomery said marriage celebrants can either recoup the costs through the fees they charged or through the organisations with whom they are registered.

A Wellington based independent celebrant said the majority of people charged about $350 to $550 in most parts of the country for celebrant services.

"It's at least eight hours of work with writing ceremonies, meeting couples, replying to emails.

Sources

• radionz.co.nz
• departmentofinternalaffairsnz.createsend.com
• govt.nz
• Image: weddingswairarapa.co.nz

Correction

On Monday 29 May, the Department of Internal Affairs confirmed by email, a telephone conversation saying ministers of certain religions will not be required to pay the registration and annual fees.

The government bill has passed the House of Commons and is now being scrutinised by a joint human rights committee of MPs and peers before being voted on by the House of Lords.

The Church's chief legal adviser on the bill has told the committee that there are serious questions over whether the legal basis on which Catholic weddings are performed can survive the passage of the bill.

Professor Christopher McCrudden said Catholic bishops may have to reconsider whether priests can carry on performing weddings, in effect, on behalf of the state.

The barrister said his advice to senior bishops is that proposed protections for churches against legal challenges under human rights or equalities laws for refusing to marry gay couples completely overlook the position of Catholics and other denominations.

This means that the entire legal basis for Catholic weddings, operating since the late 19th century, could be "unpicked" with "very uncertain consequences", he warned.

One possible outcome could even be a complete separation of church and civil weddings, such as happens in France where couples are married in the town hall with a separate service in churches, he said.

"The stakes could not be higher," he told the parliamentary committee.

"Immediately the bill is passed, the Catholic Church will have to consider how exposed to legal risk it is and whether it can continue to work the existing legal system based on that assessment."

In January, a group of more than 1000 priests issued a public letter warning that the time of persecution of Catholics could be returning with the imposition of "gay marriage". They said the bill, along with other "equalities laws", could bring back state-sponsored attacks on clergy.

Sources:

The Telegraph

LifeSiteNews

Image: Merle Dress