REPRESENTATIVES of Christian and Jewish traditions are "rejoicing" at the introduction of gay marriage and hope it will be accepted by all "people of faith" in the future.
The first nuptials took place just after midnight in England, making it the first place in the UK to allow such ceremonies. Scotland has also passed a law agreeing same-sex marriage.
A letter signed by the Bishop of Buckingham, the Rt Rev Alan Wilson, several retired Church of England bishops and five Anglican cathedral deans, said marital law had evolved "over the centuries in response to changes in society".
They said: "We rejoice that same-sex couples will be able to marry in England and Wales.
"As persons of faith, we welcome this further development in our marriage law, which has evolved over the centuries in response to changes in society and in scientific knowledge.
"We acknowledge that some - though not all - of the faith organisations to which we belong do not share our joy, and continue to express opposition in principle to such marriages."
However, they added that the time would come when people of all faiths would accept it.
The emblem of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-gender groups, the Rainbow flag, was flown over the Scotland Office and Cabinet Office yesterday.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg told the Liberal Democrats Scottish conf-erence today marks a "special day" and the UK a different place, for the better.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article