MARRIAGE RULES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 19, 24 October 1944, Page 8

MARRIAGE RULES

PROPOSAL FOR REFORM

Removal by the Church-of England of certain prohibited degrees of marriage have been recommended in a l-eport tabled at the recent sitting of the Upper House of the Cinvocation of Canterbury. They are those which i;e[use to sanction marriage between brothers and sisters-in-law, uncles and nieces at law, and aunts and nephews-in-i law. It. is also recommended that the first degree, a man from marrying his grandmother, should be removed on the ground, as the Bishop of Manchester saj T s } that it occasions ribaldry.

"We have come to the conclusion" says the report "that the absolute prohibition of marriages between brothers and ' sisters-in-law, and so on, is not justified. We find they are not universally forbidden by the Church of Rome, and appear to be generally allowed by other Christian bodies in this country."

The Bishop of Manchester said in an Interview: "Among poorer people, when the mother of the home dies, the most natural person hi the world to look after the children is her sister. If she it has 1 een suggested that she is living in sin with her brother-in-law. She cannot marry liim f and her reputation very often has been at stake."