Anglican review of remarriage rules

Press, 6 March 1984, Page 13

Anglican review of remarriage rules

NZPA' London The Church of England’s General Synod has voted in favour of new proposals for divorcees to remarry in church.

Bishops will now prepare a new draft scheme to put before the July meeting of the Synod which will put responsibility for the remarriage decision on the diocesan bishop in consultation with the parish priest. It will permit reference by the bishop to a diocesan panel of advisers. The parish priest and the couple concerned will have access to the panel The draft will also set out guidelines on the subject The old unpopular “Option G” proposals which involved a vicar’s interviewing the intended couple and reporting to thebishop have been shelved.

The Synod divided into three houses — bishops, clergy, and laity — for the vote which was carried by a

total of 295 to 130 with one abstention.

The bishops voted 35-7; the clergy, 128-68; and the laity, 132-55, all in favour. The Bishop of Chichester, the Rt Rev. Eric Kemp, amended the main motion calling for a report on marriage. The Synod’s standing committee will now study the effect of recent changes in society and the rising number of divorces. It will also consider the doctrine of marriage according to English law and study the Church’s obligation to marry all parishioners who are not divorced.

Earlier, the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev. Dr Graham Leonard, said that divorcees should not be remarried in church.

The State was “steadily eroding and was still eroding not only the Christian understanding of marriage but marriage as a fundamental human institution,” he had said.

“Notwithstanding the notice still to be displayed in any register office that

marriage is the union of one man to one woman for life to the exclusion of all others, it is treated in the law and in the courts as no more than a temporary contract terminable at will”

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Robert Runcie, supported the principle of remarriage for divorcees in church He said that the majority of the Synod believed there were circumstances in which a second church marriage should be permitted. But he suggested that those who should not be accepted included persons whose first spouse was still in misery or penury, persons whose repeated adultery showed an apparent incapacity for fidelity, or persons who had no interest in the mercy of God. Someone who was still bitter about divorce in a, self-righteous way and someone whose first marriage was still clearly in being until the new partner came along should also not be remarried in church, he said.