[Episcopal News Service]
An Anglican bishop has called universal civil marriage, with the option of a subsequent church blessing, the solution to what he called 'committing perjury' at the altar.
Bishop Noel Jones of Sodor and Man, an Isle of Man diocese of the Church of England, proposed to the church's General Synod in July that civil ceremonies could be followed by church blessings, a common practice in Europe. Church rites would be reserved for couples entering a lifelong commitment.
'It would be much more honest of the Church to say that we won't marry anybody, because doing so puts them in a position where they have said in the presence of God 'We take these vows until death us do part',' Jones told the Daily Telegraph in an interview before the synod meeting. 'I want to prevent couples from committing perjury at the altar, which is really what it is. The person being remarried is effectively saying, 'I didn't really mean it last time' or 'Well, it didn't really go quite right'.'
Jones said the state has put the church into 'a situation which is quite impossible' because the priest plays the role of 'legal, or state, registrar' of a marriage. 'The Church is forced to respond positively to the fact that the law now says there is no reason why marriage should not be contracted a second or even a third time. The Church cannot say 'No' to that as a general principle, and has reluctantly gone along with it, albeit with the conscience clause that allows priests to refuse to remarry divorcees,' Jones said.
Jones denied he was inviting the church to abandon the sacrament of marriage and disagreed with those who viewed his proposal as a step towards severing the Church of England's link with the state.
|
