EXPLAINER: Your 'church marriage' could turn polygamous if you don't run these checks

It appears that not all church weddings can entirely guarantee a monogamous marriage, as a private legal practitioner, Dennis Adjei Dwomoh has explained.

According to the Managing Partner at Law Plus Attorneys-at-Law, not all churches and pastors are licensed to officiate marriages that prevent spouses from marrying others.

He raised this caution in a bid to emphasise that having a wedding in just any church does not ensure that one's marriage will remain monogamous or exclusive.

Dwomoh explained that while monogamous marriages are supported by the law to ensure no additional spouses are added unless the marriage is dissolved, many people are unaware that if they marry in an unlicensed church, their partners are not legally bound to exclusivity.

“If you perform your marriage at a church, which is not licensed and the pastor is not licensed, that marriage is just a mere religious ceremony. And in that regard, your partner can decide to marry an additional man or marry an additional woman.

“At every white wedding, there is an interplay of a social event, a religious ceremony, and sometimes the statutory aspect of the marriage. So when you want to marry under church marriage, for it to be monogamous in accordance with statutes so that your husband cannot marry an additional one, there are certain requirements that you have to meet,” he emphasised during an interview with the Mirror.

Dwomoh also noted that for a church marriage to be legally monogamous, it must meet certain law requirements.

He listed some of the checks that prospective couples should run before intending to get married in a church.

“It is important to ask the church to show you their certificate indicating that they are gazetted. So like the driver's license, if the car has a driver's license number, you get to see.

"You can also ask whether or not the pastor who is about to officiate the marriage has also been gazetted. This is to enable you not to make a mistake thinking that you are getting a monogamous marriage,” he stated.

Alternatively, he recommended that the couple must first register their marriage at the court or the local assembly and proceed to the church or any venue for a blessing of their union.

EB/MA