LENTEN WEDDINGS

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3421, 18 February 1936, Page 3

LENTEN WEDDINGS

“ RECURRING DIFFICULTY.” SOUTHERN VICAR'S COMMENT. The celebration of marriages during the Lenten period observed by the Church of England is dealt with in a special article in the parish magazine of St. Luke’s Church, Christchurch, of which the Rev. F. N. Taylor is vicar. Under the heading “Marriages in Lent,” the article states: —

“There is a constantly recurring difficulty about this matter. Marriages are plainly inappropriate in a season of fasting and abstinence. Good church people will naturally avoid them. But practical difficulties arise at this end of the world because Lent comes in the summer and autumn instead of winter and spring. Many people cannot get their annual holiday at any other time of the year, and it is natural that those who are planning to get manned should wish to make use of their holiday week or fortnight for this purpose. In such circumstances as these a dispensation is sometimes given (somewhat irregularly, it must be confessed) by the vicar of the parish. It is a sort of extension of the authority expressly given by the bishop allowing the parish priest to dispense with the publication of banns. But where such a dispensation is given it must be remembered that so far as the church is concerned it is still Lent, and every effort should be made to avoid disturbing the quiet penitential atmosphere which pervades the church at this season. “We shall, therefore, henceforth make it the rule at St. Luke’s that in cases when, for special and urgent reasons Lenten marriages are permitted there shall be no organ-play-ing and no decoration of the church. A quiet wedding, in every sense of the term, is very desirable in such a case. It is much to be hoped that people will make every effort to arrange their marriages for times when there is no bar to their being celebrated with, all due festiyity. “In no case will marriages be permitted at St. Luke’s during Passiontide, that is, the two weeks preceding Easter.” 1