"When God created Adam, He said the man should not be alone and so he proceeded to make Eve and marry them later," said King.

He added that marriage was necessary for individual and societal fulfilment as it was the primary institution of social engineering.

"As highlighted in the Bible, most of the people in the early days were married with a family, so it didn't say a person who is providing full-time service to the Lord shouldn't have a family," King argued.

King argued that though celibacy was a spiritual commitment, as evident in the life of the apostle Paul, that should be a personal decision, not an imposition from church authority.

However, the Rev Dr Karl Johnson, general secretary at the Jamaica Baptist Union, said he had great admiration for the devotion of priests and nuns.