(Living Church) Bryan Spinks: Rehearsing Discord in Canterbury
The [International Anglican Liturgical] consultation heard two important papers. The Rev. Dr. Simon Jones of Merton College, Oxford, raised the issue of requiring that one party be a baptized Christian (in the context of unashamedly revenue-driven television and internet ads by the Church of England). The Rt. Rev. Mdimi Mhogolo, Bishop of Tanganyika, Tanzania, lamented the suppression of indigenous customs of marriage through laws modeled on those of the United Kingdom. Both papers raised serious questions about how the Church engages with culture while at the same time not abandoning a Christian-based liturgy.
One of the thorniest problems for Anglicans is our concern, inherited from England as part of the medieval Western Church, to contract a marriage at the same time as celebrating the marriage. In the Byzantine tradition vows are not part of the official liturgy; marriage is celebrated by crowning and blessing, and not contracted by vows. Of course, in most Western countries, the requirements of canon law passed into state law, and the exchange of vows is not an optional extra, but a legal necessity.
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One of the thorniest problems for Anglicans is our concern, inherited from England as part of the medieval Western Church, to contract a marriage at the same time as celebrating the marriage. In the Byzantine tradition vows are not part of the official liturgy; marriage is celebrated by crowning and blessing, and not contracted by vows. Of course, in most Western countries, the requirements of canon law passed into state law, and the exchange of vows is not an optional extra, but a legal necessity.
Read it all.
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