DIVORCE AND THE CHURCH

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21797, 1 June 1936, Page 11

DIVORCE AND THE CHURCH

DEBATE ON SUGGESTION OF EXCOMMUNICATION LONDON, May 29. Cries of “Shame!” came from members of the Lower House of Convocation when Archdeacon Dudley referred to a clergyman who became the third husband of a woman whose first husband was living, the marriage being conducted with the diocesan bishop’s approval and blessing, and celebrated by a prominent canon. He also referred to a clergyman who had divorced his wife, for adultery, but had remarried, after which he was promptly given a better living. . . . This statement was received with further shouts of “Shame.” The House was discussing a motion demanding that remarried, divorced people should not be admitted to the sacraments, except on the Church conditions. Canon Scott Moncrieff contended that the suggestion that the sacraments should be refused was because divorce and the remarriage of divorced people were opposed to the will of God. Nevertheless soldiers were not excommunicated, in spite of war against God’s will. He added that a man marrying a divorcee needed grace to make a good second marriage. Dean Lincoln declared that he would make adultery a criminal offence, with a penalty of a year’s hard labour, but would not excommunicate an offender. When an amendment was moved suggesting that the sacraments should be withheld from divorced people while second marriage relations continued, Dean Lincoln said that it was offering an inducement for a man to desert his wife and children in order to receive Communion.

The amendment was defeated and the debate was adjourned.