A JUDGE from Bolton is playing a key role in modernising the Church of England's rules.

As a member of the General Synod, the body which sets the church's laws, Geoffrey Tattersall QC, aged 59, from Lostock, recently chaired a group that proposed a relaxing of the rules on where people can marry.

Its recommendation has been adopted by the Synod and when the legislation is introduced, it will mean couples are no longer tied to churches where one of them is resident or on the parish electoral role.

They will now be able to tie the knot in any church where they have a "qualifying connection."

This includes where one of them has worshipped for at least six months, where a parent or grandparent has married in the parish, or where a parent has lived or worshipped for at least six months.

Previously, couples would have needed a special licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury to relax the rules.

Mr Tattersall said the legislation stopped short of allowing couples to marry in any church they wanted.

"We had regard to the risk of an undesirable concentration of marriages in attractive places or close to popular reception venues which could place considerable burdens on the clergy," he said.

Recently released figures showed that, in 2005, religious ceremonies were for the first time outnumbered by weddings at "approved premises", such as hotels and stately homes.

Mr Tattersall said: "We live in an increasingly mobile society where many youngsters go away to university and then move on to work elsewhere.

"Many people want to get married where they feel their real' home is, often where they grew up.

"This is about trying to make fewer obstacles for people to get married in Church of England churches."

As the revision committee chairman, Mr Tattersall is also working on legislation to define the clergy's rights and employment terms, and to clarify the ownership of church houses.

"It's a privilege to be asked to do this work," he said.

"I do it because I want to be useful in the life of the church."

Mr Tattersall is a personal injury law specialist who was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Oxford University.

He works from Manchester's Byrom Street Chambers and also sits as a judge in the Isle of Man's Court of Appeal.

Mr Tattersall's work with the church began at grassroots level in his parish at Christ Church, Heaton.

He was chairman of the Diocese of Manchester's House of Laity, made up of non-clergy, for nine years before being appointed as the body's chancellor in 2004. He became a member of the national General Synod in 1995.