Last weekend saw the ‘first’ same-sex wedding in a church in Aberystwyth.
Gemma and Kim Gornall tied the knot in an emotional ceremony at St Paul’s Methodist Church to the ‘delight’ of church members who were able to host their first same-sex ceremony.
However, it wasn’t all plain sailing for the couple, who fought for months to find a church that could (or would) host their happy union with a full marriage ceremony.
The couple was turned down by three churches in Ceredigion before finally discovering St Paul’s had recently voted to host same-sex unions.
Gemma, 26, and Kim, 30, then married on 3 February with 130 of their nearest and dearest with them in the church to celebrate. Kim, 30, said: “Finding a church was stressful, I felt really disheartened. It’s not fair that some churches can choose not to offer us a wedding.
“It’s normal now, it’s not a taboo thing, it shouldn’t matter who anybody loves. It surprised us a lot, we could’ve gone to England and been married more easily but some of our family wouldn’t have been there.
“We were worried we’d have to be married in the registry office and cut down who we wanted to attend, so we cried with joy when we received the news that St Paul’s would take us. It meant the world to us.”
Currently, churches belonging to the Church in Wales can bless civil partnerships up to the discretion of the congregation since a 2021 vote, but not perform same-sex marriage ceremonies.
This is also the case for the Church of England, voted in November 2023.
St Padarn's in Llanbadarn Fawr, St Matthew’s in Borth, and St Michael’s in Aberystwyth were therefore only able to offer the couple blessings.
Methodist churches can choose whether to host same-sex marriage ceremonies or not after a 2021 vote that allowed full marriage unions in Methodist churches for the first time.
St Paul’s Methodist Church on Queen’s Road voted to do so in 2022, making Gemma and Kim’s union their first same-sex ceremony.
Kim said: “I remember in the first meeting with the church, they were just as excited as we were. The church has new flooring to make the place more attractive, and at the rehearsal, everyone came out to make sure it was nice for us. During the ceremony, Rev Flis took Gemma aside after she got emotional.
“It was beautiful, Rev Flis was accepting and lush. It felt right.”
It was important for the couple to have their wedding in a church after Kim’s mum passed away in 2021, whom she regularly attended church with. The couple met in 2018 when both working at Morrison’s supermarket in Aberystwyth.
Gemma asked for a step to reach the sandwich fridge from Kim who was working behind the cigarette kiosk, who she then asked out on a date. In 2019 Gemma popped the question, but it took them four years and the loss of Kim’s mother before they could find a church to hold their special ceremony.
But it was important for Reverend Flis Randall too, who campaigned for the right to same-sex marriage in the Methodist church long before it happened.
She said: “We were delighted to host our first LGBTQ+ wedding in the church. It was important for me- we’re a very inclusive church and work hard at that and I’ve been advocating for equal marriage for a long time.
“The registrar thinks it was the first same-sex wedding in a church in the whole of Aberystwyth if not Ceredigion.
“We were really pleased to welcome Kim and Gem and they were great to work with, so we had really good fun. We’re always joyful when people want to marry in our church, we wish them well in their married life, with a long and happy marriage.”
Though Rev Randall’s second church, St Thomas’ in Lampeter also accepts LGBTQ+ marriages, she understands that not all churches feel the same: “I recognise other people have other views and that’s ok too.
“We live in a mixed economy and I think the Methodist Church is doing well at ‘living with contradictory convictions’ and the 2021 vote was a really good move.”
Kim and Gemma have just returned from honeymooning in a log cabin in St Clears, Carmarthenshire.