BEFORE REGISTRAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 3, 5 January 1939, Page 17

BEFORE REGISTRAR

MORE MARRIAGES

VIEWS OF MINISTERS

TENDENCY DEPLORED

The increased proportion of registry office marriages in recent years, as dis-closed-by vital statistics, is held by many Wellington ministers of religion, whose opinions were sought today, to be symptomatic of a deplorable worldwide drift from religion, particularly on the part of young people. One minister said it was only to be expected that people who did not attend church and who did not practise religior. in their homes would naturally go to the civil authority rather than follow what would to them be the strange course of entering a church. Another declared that marriages performed with proper religious • observance had a much greater chance of permanency than those that did not receive the blessing of the Church.

The danger •of drawing hasty conclusions from statistics was also stressed, and it was stated that certain factors, not related, to religion, affected the number of non-church marriages.

"There is a greater disregard for religious observances throughout the country at the .present time, particularly amongst young people, than ever before," said the Rev. W. Langstone (All Saints). "I find that older people, from 30 onwards, are very careful to come to church. Also in some cases divorced people, who cannot be married in our church, have to go to the registrar. It. is deplorable that many of the youug people do not realise the spiritual significance of the marriage contract and! the great change it brings about in their lives. They appear just to want to get married as easily as.possible. "FIGURES DECEPTIVE." ! "I have been informed that the percentage of registry office marriages has increased, especially in Wellington, since 1933," said the Yen. Archdeacon Bullock, vicar 0/ St. Peter's Church, j "I have not yet seen the figures and can therefore express no definite ideas on the matter. And I would deprecate i sweeping conclusions from such figures I as are available before very careful analysis of them has been made. Nothing can be more deceptive, without careful thought, than statistical1 records. "I would offer the following suggestions, therefore, to those who arej anxious to reac>: valid conclusions: — (1) Is there an increasing unwillingness on the part of those who do not profess to be Christians to use the offices J of the Church? Is this not so with j marriages rather more than with I burials? If so, the increasing number j of registry office'marriages only means that the contracting parties are either more honest or more courageous than, such people used to be. 1 "(2) Secondly, there is a definite relation between the percentage of divorces and registry office marriages. [ Neither the Roman nor Anglican Churches will marry parties who have been divorced, and the churches in New Zealand have become stronger! in their rules and discipline in this j matter of late years. This means that1 probably more of such divorced people go to the registry office to be married. "MIXED" MARRIAGES. "(3) The difficulty of what I call "mixed' marriages results, I fear, in many more registry office marriages than formerly was the case. "(4) Of the special increase in the Wellington district I am not inclined, j without further knowledge, to take a 1 very serious view. Many.people come to Wellington from other parts of New Zealand and from Australia just to be married, and then leave again. This Is increasingly so with the greater facilities for travel. May I stress the point that this is not a fully-considered statement. To give an example of the unwisdom of drawing hasty conclusions,

I have myself conducted far more marriages during both of the last two years than in any of the other years from 1930. One might, therefore, have drawn the conclusion that there were more marriages being solemnised in church. Evidently this is not so."

"My attention has been drawn to the fact that an increasing number of marriages in New Zealand are being conducted before the registrar," said the Rev. J. R. Blanchard, 8.A., St. John's Presbyterian Church. "Not having had the opportunity of giving the figures careful ' study my comment must of necessity be largely tentative.

"Certain questions suggest themselves as essential to a considered statement. How many of the parties who have so contracted marriage for example are in full communion with the Church? How many have sought or intend to seek a religious service subsequent to the civil ceremony in which the blessing of the Church on their marriage might be had?

"How many have been actuated by a desire to be married quietly, that is without the 'fuss and bother' associated with a public service in a church? How many have been influenced by economic reasons, being anxious to avoid the expense of dress-makers, tailors, caterers, printers, etc., fjfin ~ erally associated with the social convention bound up, in many people's minds, with the marriage service in the Church? Of course people may be married in the Church without such expense, but many do not know that, and it is difficult to inform them. j INDIFFERENT TO THE FAITH. "Again how many people are quite indifferent to the Christian faith, unaware of its demands upon life and character and unprepared to assume the ideals presented in the marriage service of the Christian Church? That such people contract marriage before the registrar rather than through the Church betokens at least sincerity on their part, but one would be happier to know that marriage was regarded more widely as a sacred ordinance of God rather than as merely a social utility or civil contract. "The questions I have raised are all relative to the problem and vital to any careful analysis. Lacking the information such questions call for I prefer to reserve judgment meantime, but the problem certainly calls for investigation." "The Church must awaken to the fact that an increasing number of people repudiate its worship and discipline," said the Rev. J. P. Wainwjright, Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Moderator of the Wellington Presbytery. "Century-old traditions are dying out. It used to be the proper thing to be married in church Now people ask 'Why? It is less fuss to do so at a registry office.' "We may soon hear of non-church burials. Religion does not count as a real factor in living to these people. Why pretend it does? Such honesty is good. "The explanation is that the Church has been living on its prestige. That prestige is beginning to crumble. Once more the Church must give reasons why it should continue to exist. Such inquiry will bring reassurance. It will mean a re-discovery of the faith. The Church will again become, prbpagarid- j ist and will go to the people with the burning message of Christ, our Lord, the only message which can save the world from disaster." GENERAL TENDENCY. ; "The increasing number or marriages before the registrar is probably symptomatic of -the general tendency j today," said the Rev. Percy Paris oi the Taranaki Street Wesleyan Church. "They will be people who have no contact with the churches. People who are in contact with the Church have been ' married in increasing numbers; the others have sought the ministrations of the registrar." ; "It is only natural to expect that people who are not in the habit of coming to church or practising prayer in their homes will prefer to be married elsewhere," said the Rev. W. Tye, of St. Matthew's, Brooklyn. "In the days when people went to church more than they do now, said prayers in their homes, and read their Bibles they, as a matter of course, sought God's blessing on their marriage. The change is deplorable, but it has taken place all over the world. The world has a tendency to neglect worship. There is some psychological reason for it that'