GAY marriages will not be allowed in Worcester's first gay church say the Quaker elders who run it.

The weddings "cannot happen" warn the Quakers who own the Friends Meeting House, where the Journey Metropolitan Community Church meets.

The church was planning to have gay weddings at the house in Sansome Place which it hires from the Religious Society of Friends, known as the Quakers, who have been based there for more than 300 years.

The church, set up last month, is designed serve "lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Christians" of the two counties who feel uncomfortable celebrating both their faith and sexuality in other churches.

The Quakers have ruled out gay weddings at the church not because the members of the Birmingham-based Journey church are gay but because anyone getting married at the meeting house must be a Quaker.

The ceremony would have to be sanctioned by the Worcester and Shropshire Quakers, accord with their official practices and take place under the guidance of their elders.

Gay minster Chris Dowd, aged 42, an Australian who organises "Queer Carols" in Birmingham, set up the church because he said the established church was not tolerant enough of gay church-goers.

Robert Purchase, convener of elders, said: "Worcester Quakers whish to make it clear that Mr Dowd is merely renting a room in our meeting-house twice a month to accommodate this gathering. Our policy for letting is that any group is acceptable to use whose aims and principles are not in opposition to our own beliefs.

"We have let rooms to Buddhists and Muslims and are very ready to provide space for a group of fellow-citizens of varying sexuality to meet together to worship. This does not imply a wish to promote their views, nor do we condemn them."

Rev Chris Dowd said it would not be a problem for members to have a wedding in Worcester but it did not have to take place at the meeting house if that did not meet with the approval of the Quakers.

He added: "If a couple are to be blessed we may do it at the meeting house or in the garden or in a community hall somewhere. If there were people looking to have a blessing, we would be able to organise it.

"I think some people felt we had only been there three minutes, the Quakers have been there 300 years.There was a lot of publicity following the article in the Worcester News. I think they were slightly concerned that it looked like we were taking over their building which we're not, just renting it twice a month. They have been very gracious about it and we are grateful to them."

Mary Speechley, one of the elders, from Kempsey, said the Quakers were very tolerant of homosexuality.

She added: "We don't want them to feel we're casting them off. We do have homosexual Quakers who are not ashamed of being homosexual. We don't want them to feel rejected by us."