CHURCH AND DIVORCE
ANOTHER REVIEW BY BISHOP. “Let us suppose that we were free to make a rule of life-long excommunication of all divorced persons, innocent or guilty, who had married again. Should we raise the moral standards of the community? Should we advantage the Church? As I see the matter, the Sacraments are, in the old words, means of grace. We hope and believe that, by partaking of the Holy Communion, we are enabled to live better lives. Do we wish those Church-people, whose first marriage has been wrecked, to live soberly and faithfully in a new union which they may form ? Should not the Church be willing to give them all the help possible ? It is not that we should be lax in our loyalty to Christ’s teaching; our witness to Christ’s ideal of life-long union is constantly affirmed in our reading of Scripture and in our marriage service. Further, does it harm me if I know that’ a man who has done wrong in the past goes to Communion with me? I am not so perfect that I can condemn others.” —Dr. Barnes, Bishop of Birmingham.
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Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 47, Issue 2667, 8 September 1937, Page 6
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189CHURCH AND DIVORCE Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 47, Issue 2667, 8 September 1937, Page 6
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