Not to hijack, but why on earth would you want the US to have a national church? State establishment of religion = teh suxxor from the point of view of the standard American approach to religious freedom.
That was poorly worded on my part. I’ve never wanted such a thing at all. I’m an atheist who thinks the Supreme Court ought to find “In God We Trust” on the money to be unconstitutional.
That sentence was the mangled remains of a thought that originally involved something like “I’d heard the Church of England was all cool and laid-back and stuff, but now I see differently.”
Yes, some of the UK differences stem from the fact that the UK has a state church. And this is the kind of complication you get when you insist on having a state church.
Parliament does in fact have the right to control doctrine and worship in the Church of England; it could tell the church that it must celebrate SSMs. But they are understandably reluctant to exercise that power.
I can live with that, to be honest. As a supporter of SSM I wish the Church of England would celebrate them - I wish all churches would. But I’m not comfortable with governments telling them that they must.
The UK does seem to have gone to the opposite extreme, dictating that the CofE may not celebrate SSMs, rather than simply leaving it up to the church to determine its own attitude to SSM. Possibly this arises out of a feeling that an intermediate position is not sustainable - as a state church, the CofE has a responsibility to serve the entire community, and there may at least be an argument that, if SSM is legal, then the CofE has a responsibility to celebrate it, unless the law explicitly says otherwise.
Obviously these complications are avoided if you don’t have a state church, so most other countries introducing SSM won’t face them. But issues like how to deal with the concept of non-consummation, and whether there are implications for pension plans or social security that for some reason can’t be addressed on an egalitarian basis may come up in other countries.