Yes, you can ... Yes, You can... Yes, You can...

I spent Sunday morning at the National Weddings Exhibition. The photo is of colleagues on the stand.
I had lots of conversations with brides to be, grooms to be, mother-in laws.... Most of what I was saying was "Yes, you can."

• To the couple who wanted to get married in the church the bride's father had been part of, the answer was "Yes, you can."
• To the couple getting married abroad but talking about a church blessing when they come back, the answer was "Yes, you can." And when told that one of them had been married and divorced, the answer was still "Yes, you can."
• For the couple where one is an Anglican and the other a semi-lapsed Roman Catholic wanting to know if they can get married in a CofE Church, the answer is "Yes, you can" - and you can ask that the Roman Catholic priest can be part of the ceremony too.
• Can we get married at 5.00pm? "Yes, you can."
• Can we have modern music? "Yes, you can."
• We're not sure if we believe in God or any particular church, can we get married? "Yes, you can."
  

It was great joy for the couples. What worries me is how the Church has got itself into a situation where people assume the answer will be "No, you can't"

And if you want to check what you can do then www.yourchurchwedding.org will tell you

Reading the signs

What does a blue arrow point to? In Portugal yellow arrows show the way to Santiago de Compostela - blue ones to Fatima . So if you were in Portugal and saw a blue arrow like the photo you could be pretty well certain that to follow it you would end up at Fatima.

BUT, if you followed this blue arrow you would end up in a mess. It doesn't point to Fatima. It's just down the road from here. I took the photo when I was walking the dogs. It points to a water main in need of attention.

It's sometimes to easy to look at signs an assume that we know what they mean.