Church acts to stem 'sham marriages'
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
23/04/2007

New marriage guidelines are being drawn up by the Church of England amid fears that its clergy may be unwittingly conducting bogus weddings.

Officials have noticed a sharp rise in the number of migrants seeking church weddings since the Government imposed a crackdown on marriages of convenience at register offices.

The Government acted in 2005 to weed out sham marriages involving foreign nationals attempting to avoid immigration controls by gaining instant British citizenship. the rest