HOURS OF WEDDINGS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22326, 28 July 1934, Page 14

HOURS OF WEDDINGS

EXTENSION IN ENGLAND ARCHBISHOP CAUGHT NAPPING. The archbishop told the Convocation of Canterbury on June 6 that the Bill authorising marriages between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. was passed through the House of Commons without any consultation with him and without his having any cognisance of it. It was passed, he said, almost without discussion. “It was then introduced into the House of Lords. Perhaps I ought to be more vigilant, the archbishop said, “ but I did not notice it and with equal rapidity it passed the House of Lords.” The Bill technically conflicted with the canon of 1603 and the amended canon of 1886, which authorised marriages between 8 o clock and 3 o’clock. It would be necessary, the archbishop said, to appoint a drafting committee to prepare the terms of an address to the King to amend the canon. Meanwhile, he added, the clergy ought not to regard themselves as being prohibited from celebrating marriages between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. The Bishop of St. Albans asked if there were not some method by which what had apparently happened in Parliament could be avoided in future. In this particular ease there seemed no reason why the hours of marriage should not be extended, “ but I should object very strongly,” the speaker said, “to anyone taking it for granted that because Parliament altered its laws, in regard to marriage therefore the Church has got to alter its canons. 1 protest against that idea as strongly as I can. the Church’s law in regard to marriage is one and the State s law is another.” The Bishop _of Exeter said that as a clergyman’s license was determined by the canons he could not see that any clergyman had a legal right to take a marriage after 3 o clock. ihe archbishop said the Bishop of St. Albans had sufficiently indicated what was in their minds. If it had been a question of a more vital principle some other action might have been taken. There is no time limit for the ceremony in connection with marriage in Scotland. There young colliers, even after completing a day’s work in the. pits, find it convenient to cal! on the minister with their sweethearts and have the nuptial knot tied.