Anglican Church to relax its marriage laws*

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:30am GMT 25/02/2007

Divorcees wanting to remarry in church will be given much greater
freedom under new ecclesiastical legislation.

The Church of England is planning to relax the law on where couples can
get married and it is expected to also allow divorcees, who previously
struggled to remarry in church, to "shop around" to find a more liberal
priest.

The church agreed last year the law should be changed to allow people to
get married in the church of their choice providing they can prove some
connection with it.

Previously couples have only been allowed to use their parish church or
one where they worship regularly unless they apply for a special licence
- a long and costly process.

The General Synod is set to enshrine the change in church law at its
meeting this week.

Traditionalists fear the legislation will allow divorcees to circumvent
the church's long-held guidelines on remarriage in church, which stress
the circumstances should remain to be "exceptional".

Currently, clergy retain the right to refuse to remarry anyone if they
are opposed in principle. Under official advice issued by the House of
Bishops, they could block the wishes of couples whose relationship has
contributed to the break-up of their first marriages or if they judge
that insufficient time has elapsed since it finished.

They will now be able to get married in a church with a more liberal
priest if they can prove some kind of connection with the parish.

The Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, the Bishop of Winchester, expressed his
concern that the new measure would make it more difficult to maintain a
"uniform" approach to the remarriage of divorcees.

"This is a serious issue that the bishops may have to revisit to remind
clergy of the existing advice. There are a range of positions among
clergy on this matter which I fear will be exacerbated by these
proposals," said the bishop, who was the chairman of the working party
on this issue.