MARRIAGES IN CHURCHES.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20490, 8 March 1932, Page 3

MARRIAGES IN CHURCHES.

1 , INSTRUCTIONS TO CLERGY. ANGLICAN CONTROVERSY. iraou our own coreiesfoydeht.) LONDON, January 28. Advice to those about, to -marry..is, j.;iven in a pastoral letter issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury. • The letter is to be handed to all couples who wish to be married in churches in the diocese of Canterbury. !i is one of the measures suggested by the Archbishop for combating "the increasing laxity 011 the subject of marriage," and reads: Marriage is a very wonderful and a \yry happy human experience .for the man or- woman wlio enters into it with 'he right partner, and in the , rigLT spirit. But, like every other great enterprise in life, marriage makes a \ try serious demand on those who enibarii upon it. A. true marriage brings citep and lasting happiness; a - happiness which is deeper , and greater than all the troubles of. life. But, like all lile's . undertakings, marriage requires en!eful preparation. It must not bo entered upon lightly. The happiness will only endure if both the man and the woman bring to their joint life unselfishness, understanding, self-forget-tulnoss, and a consideration for each other in all the little things, of life. Where that effort is successfully made, the result is a partnership which doubles lite's joys and halves its sorrows. are asking to be married in church. The marriage service of the Church is definitely intended for those who proless and'call themselves Christians. B.y wishing to be married .in church von are signifying your intention to try to livo as* Christians should live. It is a solemn service. It will tak<> placo in thf sight of God anil iti the presence of your relations and friends. J would ask-yon. therefore, to pay special attention to the vows which each of yon will take. Try to realise what these vows mean; Mar.riage is lor life; whatever happens in Hie. future. .It is for better, for worse; i_or richer, for poorer; in sickness and in. health, till death us do part. The '' Unseen Third.!' Having taken such vows before God and in the presence of witnesses, duty •and honour demand that they should Im kept at all costs. If you are not pie-pared to take - these tremendous vows, it is open to you to be married riot in church but at a register office. 'I lie civil marriage before the registrar is indeed a marriage as valid as a marriage in church, a solemn contract which binds the parties who make it. But marriage in church' pledges a man and woman by vows which are deliberately taken before God and man, And remember,' n true Christian marriage' gives you 'the assurance of God's help in keeping the vows thus made and his special grace to enable you to livo together in lifelong love and loyalty. There will.'of course, •be difficulties and troubles as well as happiness and joy in your married life, but every Christian has the right to feel assured that no temptations and no difficulties' can come to us which, with the help 6f God, we cannot stand up to and fight our way through. So do not leave God ont of your lives. .Make loom for Him': take Him in from the Start; let Him be the "Unseen Third" in your happy partnership,. in all"',the interests'aiid• responsibilities of yemr holine. Tvemembernio; tjiat Christianity iV' u - brotherhood, be op' the lo'ok-fmt for opportunity to mafc'6the happiness of your Wn married lire a meai)s of •ualcing others liap'py. / '* '''" Parenthood and Self-Sacrifice. There is another part of the service that calls for thoughtful consideration. .It comes'at the beginning, of the service and at the end. In the introduction you are reminded that ijtarriage was ordained ''for the, procreation of children" or ''for the, uicrease of mankind according to the Will of God." and at the end of v the service the prayer is offered for you that you may be "fruitful in procreation of children" or that God will bestow upon you "the heritage and gift of children." Therefore, to enter Upon marriage with the intention of refusing to j have children cannot be right. Parent--1 hood is indeed the glorious crown ot I married life. There can hardly be » more moving experience for any man or woman than the birth of their child. Married love thus enlarged and deepened is a constant spur to unselfishness, kindness, cheerfulness, all the world over. Yet remember, parenthood calls for • selt-sac-rifice and selldiscipline. You must consider one another, always keeping in mind that love means, giving and not getting, and in all the relations of .your married life you must exercise a' deliberate and thoughtful self-control. . - The Primate's instructions to clergy mentions three classes of persons who should not be married in church. Theso are divorced persons whose previous partners are still alive; persons proposing to marry within the table ot Prohibited Degrees (e.g., deceased wife's sister or deceased husbands brother); and persons who have not been baptised. A, Formaiist Religion. "A Churchman," writing to the "Daily Telegraph," says:— ."The avowed * purpose -of the Archbishop is to drive from marriage at the altars of the national Church every man' and woman who cannot accept the prouise' interpretation of the vows and principles of marriage which has at the moment the approval of the ecclesiastical paity to which his Gra<;e belongs. It is nothing?-to him that- this interpretation has produced vigorous protests, even from the Bishops, that it is; wholly denied-, by many of the most.loyal and devoted workers in the Church, - and that it is in direct coutlict with-the statute law. , . "Everyone, the Archbishop declares, who will" not admit the archiepiscopal infallibility in matters- of matrimony must be turnfed away from the Church to be married at a register office. "Was'there ever such a demonstration of the absurdity of a formalist religion? Who can wonder that in an age lnr more occupied with study of the deepest religious problems than any since the Reformation, the great majority remain aloof from the observances of the Church of England?" Lord Brentford (Home Secretary in t.he last Conservative Government) "makes the following'statement in an interview*. — " " "In these, days of anxiety about religion, when peoplo particularly. young oeople—are slipping away from the old-fashioned, observances of the Church, .is it wise-to make it difficult for men and women to continue in the Church ? These people whom ycTu do not wish to be married in church because they have not been baptised—do yon , think .they will remain in the Church., or that, they will bring up their children as' Church people? 3s -a •perfectly innocent'woman, who has had to divorce a. brutal husband, not to have her second,marriage sanctified by the Church ?•". Lord Brentford also, said: "Parliament, rightly or. wrongiv. has said that a man may marry his deceased'wife's sister or his niece bv marriage, but the Archbishop, in. effect, says: do not wish the clergV to carry out the laws of Parliament.' It would be extrcmelr Unfortunate if the Church and State became hostile to one another in this matter.''

A Voluntary Society. Another writing to die "Daily Telegraph," asks: "For what are the facts of this controversy?" They : are perfeictly simple. Tho Church of England has for hundreds of years, rightly or wrongly, forbidden - its members to contract matrimony in certain cases where she considers a. grave impediment to exist. The Church is a voluntary society, and no one can reasonably dispute the fact that such a society has tne' right to' make rules for its members, and to insist that such rules be- kept. - A society could not ■ continue to exist' at all except-on that basis. . The second relevant'fact is .that,- rightly or- wrongly. the State ha£ seen fit, fr6m time to time, to yaiy its own practice- in regard to . certain of these' impediments. "The Archbishop has mildly insisted that the law of the Chur'ch.vis. still binding on the Church. It .is entirely untrue 1 to suggfest that his: Grace is attempting to • foist upon the Church the opinions of an ecclesiastical party to which your correspondent imagines him to belong. His' "Grace"merely urges his faithfulness to the ;• perfectly clear formularies of the ..Church of whxJh he happens to be ' the Chief Pastor. The Church is a divinelyappointed society," says still another correspondent, "whose business is to draw men to God, • and administer God's gifta of Grace to its members. But those gifts, one of which is'the sacrament of mafriage, are privileges, ■hot rights, > and need . to be carefully guarded against * abuse; riot only because of their sacred character; but so as not to cheapen them in the sight of men. "Parenthood is referred to'in another letter to-day, and here, again, discipline and self control 'is all that is "necessary, ' which is very different from contra-<;qnceptives and glorying in. the defiance of God's Law~of Life./ As the Arcihbishop said on Suniiay last, when speaking on another subject, God's laws cannot be flouted with impunity. T6 emphasise this truth to people contemplating marriage cannot be wrong." The Legal Position. A "London Incumbent,''"'writing-in the -"Daily' Mail," gives "The Legal Position of the Clergy" as set forth in Chancellor Smith's handbook. A Christian and a non-Christian may be married in church as well as Christians of different denominations; and a clergyman cannot make religion or absence of religion "a ground, for refusing to perform the ceremony. As to . the remarriage of' divorbed persons, Chancellor Smith sets forth the law as follows: A person divorced ni England has a legal right to require his or her banns to be and .marriage to be solemnised in church in like manner as if he or she were a widow or widower. In the case of the guilty party' .the clergyman is not compelled to marry him or hef. But he must allow his church to Ik 3 used for the purpose.. • The- Archbishop will be wise (says this writer) if he respects our ntxtional characteristics and follows in the sagacious - footsteps of his Scottish -predecessors; Archbishops Tait and Davidson. : What is the Answer? : The "Daily Express," m a leading article, reproduces a part of a letter": Tho hell that I lived in was ended by the Divorce Court. I endured every humiliation to try to make our marriage a success. Perhaps some other woman'might have done more, but i did my , best. Nqw I-am, to be married again. The kindest',.and best .man- in the world is to be iiiyhusbtyid. He is deeply "religious, and so. am . Iv J .'.We want to ..be. married m church in the sight of. Godand man. .What has he done and what have I done to be denied

the marriage- sacrament of ohr Church,? ''.There may be some adequate "answer to that question," says the "Express." "There may; be ecclesiastical " justification for closing the doors-of .tjie Church against two people who Jiave done no wrong/ .... v . "But . what is that * answers' What is that justification? .'. - The lay mind is left bewildered and uneasy." : Power, of the State. The following are further excerpt* from of letters in the "'Dally Telegraph' 1 on the subject: - ""What the State has done- on'ce, at the Iteiormatipn, it. can do ! again, it can require the Established Church to conduct itself on the broadest possible lines so long as the Church enjoys the privileges of an Established ' Onurch, and claims the use of the cathedrals and churches of, the land. The Church's claim for spiritual autonomy > is inconsistent with its established position, and can never be con-,, ceded. It would meah, now, the sweeping of the Church into the. conjpletecontrol of its' present dominant party, ty;hich would draw'the bonds of cfiurchmanship even tighter and narrower. "Is the deadweight - of intolerance and tradition always to. bear upon our •p&tflfeP" "the original moulds in which Christianity was ■ set>'- were- made 'by .^.fimeni. innuisnced by their environment arid-"men-tal atmosphere, and that iti-is for-us in a different atinosphigr'e -Jo imodify our view's under the influence, of. Chris's- spirit, and that th'e-saine freedom mhst ' be • 'nJankuid 2000 years* hence. Spiritual, autonopy 'means tyranny:'- State control means spiritual tences rests the heart of the matter. •Let us admit the bald triith. Is not, the hfy dingst in . cnurch ( to, C m» » registry office "merely' to ot>sfrV« <} » convention or because it-is considered Jmore'Vespectabla? . . - b •?, > , "The Primate and those of your epitliat marriage Kaa unknown until the 11th century. to, a man who declared in the Pj® sence of witnesses tain woman was l^ r s ied considered to - be marriea. . was. also, equally informal. Whe£, hnwever • it became - we ;t? to invite a priest to the. wedding, Christian marriage,-. as. we, know it, go. imder way: It seems to me that if Lecky is right, the pretentions, of the l'rimate and his supporters are rather far-fetched: The Archbishop of t«»rbury from a Christian standpoint, is* clearly right ■ in- his .demands regarding the sanctity of marriage, but can he enforce them? Divorce is legalised by the State, and .the Church of Eng. Isjnd can enforceI*Unlaws 1 *Unlaws- only through an ,Act of Parliament. -Oan-.imy Par--1 lament pass an " Act Mmittiiig. that dirorce would be. and right' in the State?' The-position for the Archbishop is hopeless. ; Critics of, the -Primate be ignorant of constitutional: law and practice.. As Mr Justice .Bennett pointed out last spring in the Birmingham case, no court of law has power to'compel a man to do anything. All it can do is to anboint ian officer to net in bis' stead.- The -Registration of Marriages Act has'done- this.-; I "The" feo'-ealledifChurch"Eaw' is part laws of England. ..It,is set forth in rubrics of the An oft-quoted "-Act. the "Age l of'Uniformity, 16G2.' orders the clergy'-.to ;follow this "'arid other.I*' 1 *' If' I marry "a" man niece', anv freeman: of' England 'may present a.vbill tooths-'grand'" jury at quarter sessions indicting me for a ] criminal offence, "and- -the magistrates^

. r - Fji * would be bound to fconyiet< 4>e« "If it, is desired to alter the 'Churph^-liaw, 5 a canon must be aiid subscribed, by the C6nvocatjop,\njider license from- the King. ,t vxiie'Jis one" of those eccentric "&urchmen who,stall hold - '.the. l£w vmusfc- beTobeyed; 1 especiallyjiy .those Jji until it has been ait-eyed „ with. the , constitutional ~ tradition- of Eng—,' land.".