DIVORCED PEOPLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22928, 5 January 1938, Page 14

DIVORCED PEOPLE

ATTITUDE OF CHURCH ENGLISH M.P. PROTESTS [fbom oub own* correspondent] LONDON, Dec. 11 As a protest against the Church of England's attitude toward divorce Sir Francis Acland, Liberal M.P. for North Cornwall, is ceasing to be a member of the Church and is joining the Society of Friends. In a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury Sir Francis said: — " I wrote to you recently about my distress of mind as to the attitude of the Church on the subject of divorce, and you very kindly helped me, not only as my father in God, but as an acquaintance of 59 years' standing. The following is the position as it appears to me:—"By the_ New Marriage Act two important changes are made; the clergy are no longer compelled to marry divorced persons in church, for they have been freed from this obligation under a clause which I supported in the House of Commons.

" Secondly, it will become very greatly easier than heretofore to distinguish between the innocent and the guilty parties, for as you know, there is a special clause making collusion, which was very common in adultery cases, much more difficult, and with regard to the new causes —desertion, insanity and cruelty—there can be little doubt as to which party is innocent, although it may not be always easy to say the other party is guilty. "In spite of this now freedom, the Church, in every way at present possible to it, has tightened up its rule that tho clergy are not to marry even the innocent party in church. "While doing this, the Church has taken and intends to take, no step whatever to promote an alternative marriage service under which those who prefer it would be married without using the words 'until death do us part' and thus bo remarried in church if the first marriage was ended. "The Church, in fact, has no intention whatever of bringing itself into line with the modern spirit which is visible ill Protestant Churches all over the world.

"My duty is, therefore, quite obvious. I must cease to be a member of the Church.

"1 shall continue the heln that I have been able to give financially to Church work in my parish as long as I can afford to do so. 1 shall, however, seek admission to the Society of Friends, with whom I have always been in moral, spiritual, and intellectual communion, and \fhose meetings I have regularly attended when the attitude taken in neighbouring churches toward my political beliefs has made it impossible for me to attend them."