The Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales are of one mind when it comes to same-sex marriage in church: They don’t want it.

The Church of England launched the first salvo yesterday when it said that introducing gay marriage would threaten the establishment of the Church of England and lead to an unprecedented clash between its own canon law – that marriage is between a man and a woman – and that of Parliament.

The Church also warned that in spite of ministerial assurances that churches would not have to conduct gay marriages, it would be “very doubtful” whether limiting same-sex couples to non-religious ceremonies would withstand a challenge at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

The Catholic bishops of England and Wales weighed in later, saying marriage is a “unique institution” whose distinguishing characteristics centre on the “biological complementarity” of men and women and the possibility of children.

The proposed changes, if implemented, would “permanently diminish” the significance of marriage for the whole of society, they warned in a submission to the Government consultation on same sex marriage.

The responses were swift: gay rights campaigners accused the church of orchestrating a “masterclass in melodramatic scaremongering” and Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, the campaigning gay rights group, dismissed fears raised by the Church of England that introducing same sex marriage would undermine its centuries-old role as the established Church.

He said polling commissioned by Stonewall has shown more than 80 per cent of people in Britain under 50 are in favour of introducing same sex marriage – amongst religious people, he said, three in five said gay people should be able to get married.

Thus the battle lines have been drawn as the Government consults over the potential of same-sex marriages being allowed in churches. Or so it seems. The Bishop of Bradford, Nick Baines, has thus far resisted following the path of his colleagues from Leicester and Sheffield in denouncing the idea outright. Instead, he’s suggesting that the soundbite quotes from both sides are merely the tip of the iceberg - and we all owe it to ourselves to dig a little deeper before reacting.

Bishop Nick is no fusty clergyman, and anyone with a passing familiarity with his online blog will know he doesn’t shy away from the big issues. Last month he perhaps presciently wrote on his website: “Conversations with journalists often involves challenging the suggestion that the Church of England spends all its time in conflict over sex and women...”

He was talking at the time about women bishops, but could easily have been talking about gay weddings in churches. He also wrote: “Well, despite my protestations that the bulk of our preoccupations have nothing to do with sex or conflict, the House of Bishops spent 95 per cent of its meeting this week doing sex and women (bishops).”

Another month, another sex and conflict story for the church. But Bishop Nick wants us to delve behind the headlines, and he points to what he sees as very significant flaws in the whole argument, starting with the language used throughout.

“It’s important that the church questions the language and assumptions against the significant culture change,” he told the Telegraph & Argus.

But isn’t it just words? Not necessarily, says Bishop Nick: “The government consultation makes assumptions that are seriously questionable, for example confusing ‘marriage’ with ‘weddings’.

“A further example would be the assumption that there are two types of marriage: civil and religious. It’s not a distinction recognised in law and is therefore questionable.

“It’s important that people look at the argument behind the whole of the statement and not just react to headlines.”

The Bishop of Sheffield, the Rt Rev Steven said: "Whilst this is being presented as a kind of minor extension to what marriage means, actually, from the point of view of the Church and of society, it is a really, really fundamental change to an institution which has been at the core of our society for hundreds of years and which for the Church is not a matter of social convention but of Christian doctrine and teaching.”

Is the whole thing less about actually allowing gay and lesbian people into church to be bound in matrimony or is it, as some suggest, more about the place the church has in the fabric of British society?

Bishop Nick thinks not. “The status of the Church of England is not the major question here,” he said. “Rather it is about what we are doing to our understanding of marriage. If anything the headlines today at least spread the debate more widely.”

Around a quarter of weddings in England take place in Church of England churches with the number rising in 2010 by 4% to 54,700 compared with 52,730 in 2009.

The submission from the Church of England will add to pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron, who has spoken out in support of gay marriage.

Mr Cameron has come under fire from supporters of the proposals for allowing a free vote among Tory MPs to avoid a rebellion over the issue.