Church to lift ban on marrying divorcees
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Your support makes all the difference.The Church of England took a further step towards giving divorcees the right to marry in church yesterday.
At a meeting of the General Synod three church bodies – the House of Laity and the Canterbury and York Convocations – voted to overturn rules banning clergy from conducting weddings involving divorcees.
The vote sends a clear signal that there would be no symbolic obstacles to the Prince of Wales marrying Camilla Parker Bowles in church. The death of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, who was opposed to her grandson remarrying a divorcee, has fuelled speculation that the couple will seek a church wedding.
On Thursday the General Synod, the governing body, will be asked to give its final approval to the motion, which would enable the House of Bishops to issue national guidelines on the subject.
At a meeting in July, the Synod debated a House of Bishops report on "marriage in church after divorce". Its members accepted the report, voting 269-83 in favour. At that meeting the Synod decided that clergy would be given advice on the issue by the House of Bishops, but that the decision on whether a divorced person could remarry in church would rest with the minister.
Members had also rejected the establishment of diocesan or regional panels to review applications for remarrying in church after hearing that a similar system in Canada had not worked.
The Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, said the proposals would not "dilute the church's commitment to lifelong marriage". But he said the breakdown of a marriage was a "wretched reality" for many couples in the country.
Church leaders were reminded that in 11 per cent of weddings in the Church of England and Church in Wales one or both parties were divorced.
Mr Scott-Joynt said that the synod was convinced that marriage should only be entered into as a "lifelong vocation" and he would not have supported the proposals otherwise. He added: "We have to [represent] the compassion and the rebuilding love of God to as many as possible of those who are serious and hopeful about embarking freshly on marriage after a divorce.
"As things are, we present an uncertain, incoherent picture to those who want to know where the Church of England stands on an issue which sadly touches the lives of many thousands of people."
The ban on remarriage in church could not be legally enforced because clergy are entitled under civil law to carry out such weddings. But while some bishops turned a blind eye, others insisted that their clergy upheld church law. Some clerics have ignored their bishops so that more than 7,500 church weddings a year involve at least one divorced person.
Under the proposed changes couples will no longer be bound to the parish where they live and will be able to try another church if the local priest refuses their request.
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