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Document Details :

Title: 'The Challenge to Change'
Subtitle: The Church of England Relaxes the Rules on Divorce
Author(s): WOODS, Thimothy
Journal: Marriage, Families & Spirituality
Volume: 8    Issue: 2   Date: Autumn 2002   
Pages: 295-297
DOI: 10.2143/INT.8.2.2004445

Abstract :
Until very recently, the Canon Law of the Church of England did not permit remarriage in church while a former spouse is still alive. Since the 1960’s, however, there has been a mounting pressure to change the rules which culminated in 1999 in the official recommendation, formulated in a working document entitled Marriage in Church after Divorce, to authorise second marriages in certain circumstances (see INTAMS review 6 [2000], 285f.). As a last step in this process, the General Synod of the Church of England passed a resolution in July 2002 which follows that recommendation. Revd Timothy Woods, Director for Church and Society in the Anglican Diocese of Salisbury, who supports and advises parish clergy and churches on social and political issues, reports on the recent decision and its implications.

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