wfn.org | Church of England permits remarriage for divorced people

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Note #7345 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

18-July-2002
02254

Church of England permits remarriage for divorced people  
  
by Cedric Pulford  
Ecumenical News International

LONDON - The Church of England has voted strongly - and against traditionalist opposition - to allow church weddings for divorcees whose former partner is still living.  

The church's historic ban on such weddings was last reiterated in 1957, although it has often been disregarded by Anglican parish clergy. More than one in six weddings - 11,000 out of 65,000 - in 1999 involved at least one divorced person, a Church of England spokesman told ENI.  

The ruling general synod's decision, by 269 votes to 83, to allow remarriage in "exceptional" circumstances still leaves clergy free to refuse to marry couples including a divorcee.  

The decision raised immediate speculation that this opens the way for the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, to marry his long-time companion, Camilla Parker Bowles, whose ex-husband is still living.  

Archbishop Rowan Williams, who is widely expected to become archbishop of Canterbury in October, supports a church wedding for the couple if they wish it, according to unnamed sources quoted in the British news media. He was said to believe that the prince and Parker Bowles should be treated "as any other couple".

In the general synod on July 9, Michael Scott-Joynt, bishop of Winchester, introduced the new marriage policy on behalf of the House of Bishops, where the measure will return for further legislative action.  

The church remained committed to life-long marriage, Bishop Scott-Joynt insisted.  

"We have to [represent] the compassion and the rebuilding love of God to as many as possible of those who are serious and hopeful about embarking freshly on marriage after a divorce," he said.  

"As things are we present an uncertain, incoherent picture to those who want to know where the Church of England stands on an issue which sadly touches the lives of many thousands of people, of whom many are already within our churches, and many others are within reach of our service and witness."  

Marriage breakdown was "a wretched reality" for many, he pointed out.  

The measure provides a series of guidelines to allow priests to make up their own minds. A priest might decline to marry a couple whose relationship caused the breakdown of the previous marriage of one of the partners, as this would be "consecrating an old infidelity". Another ground for refusal might be the marriage causing "hostile public comment or scandal".  

A person who has been divorced more than once might expect the priest to refuse a third marriage because the church does not wish to endorse "serial monogamy".  

In the Methodist Church, which is planning to enter a covenant with the Church of England, 64 percent of marriages involved at least one person who had been divorced, according to a Methodist spokesman citing the latest available church figures (1998). He suggested that the number was made greater by couples unable to marry in Anglican and Roman Catholic churches.  

Critics of the Church of England's marriage measure claim it will promote "marriage on demand" for divorcees.  

Geoffrey Kirk, national secretary of the Anglican traditionalist group Forward in Faith, told ENI: "If a priest says no to a proposed marriage when he has said yes to others, his criteria become questionable. The safest thing will be to say yes always."

The general synod also agreed to relax the rule about the location of weddings so that the ceremonies will no longer have to take place in a church.  

This matches a coming change in the British law on civil weddings, which will permit them to be held almost anywhere.  

For church weddings, a variety of venues will be possible including historic castles and open-air settings. 
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