Church Wedding Does Not Prevent Polygamy Lawyer

A Managing Partner at Law Plus Attorneys-at-Law, Mr Dennis Adjei Dwomoh, has clarified that having a white or church wedding does not necessarily ensure a monogamous marriage.

In an interview  in Accra last Tuesday with The Mirror, he stated that while monogamous marriages required complete commitment, allowing no additional spouses unless legally dissolved, many people mistakenly assumed that a church wedding guaranteed exclusivity.

Mr Adjei Dwomoh, who was speaking ahead of the first edition of Ghana’s Marriage Governance Conference scheduled for Tuesday, August 27, at The British Council in Accra, explained that couples who undergo customary marriages can have their union blessed in a church or through a white wedding. However, he cautioned that not all churches and pastors are licensed to perform marriages that prevent spouses from marrying others.

“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 advised that couples seeking a monogamous marriage through church or white wedding must first find out if the churches and pastors are licensed to do so.

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

You can also ask whether or not the pastor who is about to celebrate 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.