Memorial of the Diocese of Newfoundland re Divorce
https://archives.anglican.ca/link/official3266
- Date
- 1952 September
- Source
- General Synod. Minutes
- Type
- Resolution
- Mover
- Very Rev. C.E. Riley
- Seconder
- Canon Dowker
- Prologue
- On behalf of the Diocese of Newfoundland, the Very Rev. R.S. Rayson presented the following Memorial:
- "Whereas at the meeting of General Synod in Halifax in September, 1949, the Lower House adopted by a small majority a memorial from the Diocese of Calgary requesting legislation to permit the so-called "remarriage" of the innocent party in a divorce, by the clergy of the Church.
- And whereas the Upper House, while refusing to concur in the said memorial, referred it for study to the Commission on Marriage and Divorce:
- Be it resolved that this Synod of the Diocese of Newfoundland, profoundly conscious of the need of Christian witness and the maintenance of Christian moral standards and family life today:
- (a) Reaffirms the agelong teaching of the Church of God, that marriage between Christians is the life-long union of one man with one woman, to the exclusion of all others, and that only death can dissolve this union; and asserts its conviction that this teaching accurately expresses the mind of our Blessed Lord and His Apostles, as declared in the New Testament;
- (b) Urges the General Synod to maintain unchanged the Church's present marriage law, viz: 'That no Clergyman of the Church of England in Canada shall solemnise a marriage between persons either of whom has a divorced partner living at the time';
- (c) Recognizing that there are cases in which no true marriage has existed from the beginning, suggests that the Commission on Marriage and Divorce give further study to the grounds on which marriage may be annulled, and to the establishing of Diocesan Courts to deal with such cases of annulment: and
- (d) Directs that a copy of this Resolution be forwarded to the Secretaries of the General Synod, and to the Commission on Marriage and Divorce."
- Text of motion
- That this matter be deferred until the Report of the Commission on Marriage and Related Problems is considered in Joint Session. CARRIED
- Subjects
- Marriage - Annulment (Canon law) - Anglican Church of Canada
- Marriage - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada
- Divorce - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada
- Remarriage - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada
- Church of England in Canada. Diocese of Newfoundland