KINDRED OF AFFINITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27083, 18 May 1949, Page 6

KINDRED OF AFFINITY

AMENDING BILL BEFORE SYNOD PA 'WELLINGTON, May 17. A Bill to amend the table of Kindred of Affinity—the list of relatives between whom marriages are prohibited which is printed in the prayer k oo k—-was int. oduced in the General Synod of the Church of England tonight. The most important changes are the allowing of marriages between a man and his deceased wife’s sister and between a woman and her deceased husband’s .brother. Moving the adoption of the Bill, Mr H. E. Evans, X.C. (Wellington) said that in making the change the Church in New Zealand would be following the course adopted in England. He submitted that a matter of doctrine was not involved, the scriptures speaking with two voices. * . , , Items which were being dropped from the table were among those which had been included in the prohibited degrees of relationship as a consequence of marriage but where no blood relationship existed. The proposed new table coincided with the New Zealand civil law. There was little discussion and the Bill was read a second time It was set down for the third reading on Thursday and if passed it will become effective at the end of the Synod Session. , , Under the new table, a man would be able—if both parties were free—to marry his father’s brother’s wife, his mother’s brother’s wife, his wifejs mother’s sister, his wife’s fathers sister, his wife's sister, his brothers wife, his brother’s son’s wife, his sister’s son’s wife, his wife’s brother’s daughter, or his wife's sister’s daughter. A woman would be able to marry the man in any of the corresponding relationships.