The Quakers sanctioned gay marriages yesterday and called on the Government to give same-sex couples who marry in their ceremonies the same standing as heterosexual people.

Other Christian churches and religious denominations have approved blessings for same-sex civil partnerships but the Quakers are Britain’s first mainstream religious group to approve marriages for homosexuals.

It is a decision that will be welcomed by gay and lesbian Christian groups worldwide as a breakthrough in what they regard as a campaign for justice and equality.

At their annual gathering in York this week more than 1,600 Quakers agreed “to treat same-sex, committed relationships in the same way as opposite-sex marriages, reaffirming our central insight that marriage is the Lord’s work and we are but witnesses”.

The next edition of Quaker Faith and Practice, their “book of Christian discipline”, will be revised “so that same-sex marriages can be prepared, celebrated, witnessed, recorded and reported to the State, as opposite-sex marriages are”.

Quakers’ meetings, known as Meetings for Sufferings, are also to be urged to engage with the Government to seek a change in the relevant laws “so that same-sex marriages notified in this way can be recognised as legally valid, without further process, in the same way as opposite-sex marriages celebrated in our meetings”.

But they also decided that “the question of legal recognition by the State was secondary” and that they would not be urging Quaker registrars to break the law and marry gay couples.

The annual gathering approved the statement: “We will not at this time require our registering officers to act contrary to the law but understand that the law does not preclude them from playing a central role in the celebration and recording of same-sex marriages.”

The Government allows couples to register their civil partnerships but stops short of counting them as married, even though the civil ceremony gives them almost exactly the same rights in law over property, pension and inheritance.

Quakers, officially the Religious Society of Friends, have acknowledged same-sex partnerships since the 1960s. About 20 Quaker meetings have held celebrations of same-sex commitments since the 1990s.

The Junior Yearly Meeting, representing teenage Quakers, had already agreed earlier this week that “to deny the spiritual aspect of marriage to committed couples, based on their sexuality, is unjust”.

Michael Hutchinson, of Quakers in Britain, said: “We recognise that many homosexual people play a full part in the life of the Society of Friends. Many of our meetings have told us that there are homosexual couples who consider themselves to be married and believe this is as much a testimony of divine grace as a heterosexual marriage. They miss the public recognition of this in a religious ceremony.