Marriage and Pastoral Problems from an Anglican Perspective

Adrian Thatcher

The present paper deals with the theology of the Gospel”, and finds the attaching of the term marriage and the attitude towards pastoral prob- “sacrament” to the institution of marriage an lems and opportunities related to this from an unwelcome development, “grown partly of the Anglican perspective. I will first (1) re-visit the corrupt following of the Apostles”.3 Second, 1994 document Life in Christ, Morals, Commun- Anglicans, as a matter of history, had acknowl- ion and the Church, of the Second Anglican/ edged the validity of civil marriages. (One still Roman Catholic International Commission need not be baptized to be married in an Angli- (ARCIC II);1 (2) outline some developments can Church, or to have one’s children baptized.) since then among Anglicans and Catholics, and They arrived at the view that even these mar- (3) offer some comments on what I called “the riages contracted extra ecclesiam were “sacramen- post-ecumenical phase” in the relations between tal” too. our Churches into which we may already be Anglicans, then, were said by their ARCIC plunged. theologians both to affirm “the special signifi- cance of marriage within the Body of Christ”, and to “emphasize a sacramentality of marriage 1. ARCIC II that transcends the boundaries of the Church”.4 That position requires them to hold (1) marriage 1.1. Marriage is not a sacrament; (2) marriage is nonetheless sacramental within the Church (its “special sig- The sacramentality of marriage was a key issue nificance”); (3) its sacramentality extends beyond for ARCIC II. The Commission agreed that mar- the Church to all couples who are prepared to riage was a “covenant” with “a naturally sacra- receive its sacramental grace. It is not impossible mental dimension”. It disagreed about how to to believe all three of these propositions at the interpret “sacramentality”. The Catholic tradi- same time, but it requires an intentional fuzziness tion, following the Councils of Florence (1439) of meaning that was never going to be reconciled and Trent (1563), affirmed “that Christian mar- with the Tridentine view of the sacrament of riage is a sacrament in the order of redemption, marriage and its availability only to baptized the natural sign of the human covenant having Christians. So in the interests of unity they been raised by Christ to become a sign of the retained some fragile hold on the language of irrevocable covenant between himself and his sacramentality, while calling for further study on Church”.2 Anglicans had two major problems how this deliberately ambiguous language might with this. First, Article XXV of the Thirty Nine be understood. There has been no further study Articles of Religion, clearly states there are two of which I am aware. Both our Churches have sacraments only “ordained of Christ our Lord in been preoccupied with more explosive issues.

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1.2. ARCIC: Other Moral Issues A year later (1995) a report to the General Synod of the Church of England on cohabitation, Some- The other related issues discussed in Life in thing to Celebrate, caused uproar because it dared Christ were divorce, contraception, abortion and to suggest that homosexual relations. On divorce, it was The wisest and most practical way forward…may explained that Anglicans, from Archbishop be for Christians both to hold fast to the central- Cranmer on, have been divided over the question ity of marriage and at the same time to accept that whether marriage is dissoluble, and so whether cohabitation is, for many people, a step along the further marriage after divorce is possible.5 On way towards that fuller and more complete com- contraception, it was explained that there are two mitment.9 “basic goods of marriage” (Augustine would be Synod did not merely kick this explosive ball into surprised to learn that one had got lost), but the touch: they kicked it right out of the football two turn out to be “loving union and procrea- ground. However, the issue of divorce and re- tion”.6 For Anglicans, it is “sufficient” that these marriage (carefully named “further marriage”) goods “should characterize the married relation- received a much more sympathetic hearing. In ship as a whole; whereas for Roman Catholics, July 2002 the General Synod passed a resolution, it must characterize each act of sexual inter- by 269 votes to 83, which having first acknowl- course”. On abortion, it was explained that edged that marriage was a “life-long covenant”, “Anglicans have no agreed teaching concerning went on to recognise (1) that some marriages the precise moment from which the new human regrettably do fail and that the Church’s care for life developing in the womb is to be given the couples in that situation should be of paramount full protection due to a human person”.7 And importance; and (2) that there are exceptional on “homosexual relations” it was explained (in circumstances in which a divorced person may the single short paragraph devoted to the topic) be married in church during the lifetime of a that Roman Catholic teaching holds that homo- former spouse…10 sexual activity is “intrinsically disordered”, and concludes that it is always objectively wrong. 1 ARCIC II: Life in Christ, Morals, Communion and the This affects the kind of pastoral advice that is Church, 1994, available online at http://www.pro.urbe. it/dia-int/arcic/doc/e_arcicII_morals.html; accessed given to homosexual persons. Anglicans could 25.04.2012. agree that such activity is disordered; but there 2 Ibid. par. 62 may well be differences among them in the con- 3 Book of Common Prayer, 1662, Articles of Religion, XXV, “Of the Sacraments”; available online at http://angli- sequent moral and pastoral advice they would cansonline.org/basics/thirty-nine_articles.html; accessed think it right to offer to those seeking their coun- 25.04.2012. sel and direction.8 4 ARCIC II: Life in Christ, par. 62. 5 Ibid. 64-77. 6 Ibid. 81. 7 Ibid. 85. 2. Developments in the Anglican Communion 8 Ibid. 88. 9 Working Party of the Board for Social Responsi- since 1994 bility: Something to Celebrate: Valuing Families in Church and Society, London: Church House Publishing, 2.1. Cohabitation and Divorce 1995, 115. 10 I discuss this in “Further Marriages in the Anglican Communion”, in: R. Burggraeve/K. Demasure et al. ARCIC II said not a word about the growing (eds.): Marriage - Divorce - Remarriage: Challenges phenomenon of cohabitation before or instead and Perspectives for Christians, Leuven: Peeters, 2007 of marriage. There were almost no women par- (Annua nuntia Lovaniensia; 58), 253-262. See also http:// www.adrianthatcher.org/data/resources/further%20mar- ticipants in the Commission’s deliberations. Back riages%20in%20the%20anglican%20communion.pdf; then, gender could apparently still be side-lined. accessed 25.04.2012.

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There were to be no marriage tribunals, nor unions, nor the ordination of those involved in did the qualifying circumstances turn out to be such unions”.15 Twelve years after Issues in very “exceptional’. In fact candid advice was Human Sexuality a lengthier, more conservative given to clergy about how to weigh up whether document appeared, Some Issues in Human to grant requests for further marriages and this Sexuality, which by leaving key questions open, was placed in the public domain (where couples did nothing to reassure protesters.16 can easily gain access to it).11 General Synod is expected to approve the admission of women to 2.3. The “Offence” of the Episcopal Church the episcopate in July 2012. The election and consecration of Gene Robin- 2.2. Homosexuality son to the vacant see of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church of the USA in 2003, and in Everyone knows that the issue to dominate defiance of Lambeth resolutions 1.10d and e, Anglicanism since ARCIC II has been homo- caused a storm of protest which was given fur- sexuality. Evangelical and conservative Anglicans ther impetus among traditionalists in 2006 by used homosexuality as a uniting issue to stop the enthronement of a woman, Dr. Katherine what they saw as a tide of liberalism sweeping Jefferts Schori, to be the Senior, that is the “Pre- the Church. The English bishops had in 1991 siding” Bishop of that Church. Sufficient num- issued a statement, Issues in Human Sexuality, in bers of bishops and dioceses declared themselves which conscience was adduced as a justifying fac- to be in a state of “impaired communion” with tor in the legitimate expression of same-sex love. the Episcopal Church (and all who supported Coining the awkward English word “homo- them) that the Archbishop of Canterbury set up phile”, the bishops acknowledged that some The Lambeth Commission on Communion which homophile Christians produced in 2004 a document that came to be …are conscientiously convinced that this way of known as The Windsor Report.17 The commis- abstinence is not the best for them, and that they sioners recommended “the adoption by the have more hope of growing in love for God and churches of the Communion of a common neighbour with the help of a loving and faithful Anglican Covenant which would make explicit homophile partnership, in intention lifelong, and forceful the loyalty and bonds of affection where mutual self-giving includes the physical which govern the relationships between the expression of their attachment.12 churches of the Communion”.18 All matters of What was to be done with these awkward homo- doctrine and practice likely in future to impair philes? The bishops said: communion would be referred to it, a veritable While unable, therefore, to commend the way of “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith” life just described as in itself as faithful a reflection – as its opponents dubbed it, not without irony of God’s purposes in creation as the heterophile, – since a Vatican-type instrument was being set we do not reject those who sincerely believe it is up to give conservative evangelical Christians God’s call to them. We stand alongside them in a stronger voice! Voting on whether to adopt the fellowship of the Church…13 a version of the covenant is taking place now.19 There was a rising tide of opposition to what In 2008, just before the Lambeth Conference, some Anglicans perceived as a departure from the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAF- biblical faith. The bishops of the Anglican Com- CON) was set up. A Fellowship of Confessing munion at the 1998 Lambeth Conference dis- Anglicans (FCA) was established. Many Anglican missed “homosexual practice as incompatible bishops thought of this as an alternative to the with Scripture”,14 and announced they could not Lambeth Conference and absented themselves “advise the legitimising or blessing of same-sex accordingly.

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The Episcopal Church was invited by the “rigorist” both in tone and application where Windsor Group to explain its actions in allowing empathy and insight instead are needed. The best the consecration of Gene Robinson. Their pastoral theology in Anglicanism today does this, response, To Set our Hope on Christ, having I think, across a whole range of sexual and mar- deplored the promiscuity of much of the USA, ital questions. bears no trace of capitulation to secular mores, The same document in defending contracep- but concentrates on the “universal call to holiness tion against Pius XI, also emphasized “that in of life in human relationships”.20 The Church, defending contraception, Anglicans ought posi- they said, could not fail to notice the presence tively at the same time to be working out a the- of the Holy Spirit in the lives of some of their ology of rapid social change and betterment”.24 coupled lesbian and gay members, which “has That is, of course, a daunting task, but if it were led us to the conviction that covenanted same-sex done, it might lead the churches to discern bet- unions can be open to God’s blessing and holy ter that God the Spirit is not confined to Coun- purposes in an analogous way to that of mar- cils and Encyclicals but blows where she wills riages between a man and a woman”. That was not the only analogy to play a part in their self- 11 For example, at http://old.wakefield.anglican.org/info/ defence. Acknowledging that their actions had handbook/Clergy/Marriage%20in%20church%20 caused distress elsewhere in the Anglican Com- after%20divorce%20-%20House%20of%20Bishops%20 advice%20to%20clergy.pdf; accessed 25.04.2012. munion they compared the change of heart that 12 Church of England: Issues in Human Sexuality: led to the blessing of lesbian and gay unions with A Statement by the House of Bishops of the General Synod the change of heart described in Acts 10-15 when of the Church of England, December 1991, London: Church House Publishing, 1991, 41 (par. 5.6). Peter was astonished to find that the Holy Spirit 13 Ibid. 41. 21 could be found among the Gentiles. 14 Lambeth Conference : “Resolution 1.10d”, available at http://www.lambethconference.org/resolutions/1998/1998-1-10.cfm; accessed 25.04.2012. 15 Lambeth Conference : “Resolution 1.10e”. 3. Reflections 16 Church of England: Some Issues in Human Sexuality: A Guide to the Debate: A Discussion Document from the 3.1. How Does Pastoral Theology Proceed? House of Bishops’ Group on Issues in Human Sexuality, London: Church House Publishing, 2003. See in particular 319, par. 9.7.6. There is an Anglican document of 1958, The 17 The Windsor Report, 2004; available online at http:// Family in Contemporary Society,22 defending the anglicancommunion.org/windsor2004/section_c/p9. cfm; accessed 25.04.2012. Lambeth Conference decision of 1930 to allow 18 The Windsor Report, par.118. contraception within marriage. In the course of 19 At the time of writing this paper (April 2012) a major- taking apart the arguments of Pope Pius XI in ity of diocesan synods have voted to reject the covenant. This has been widely interpreted as a fatal blow to the Casti connubii (1930), the document’s authors say office and reputation of the Archbishop of Canterbury their “approach to the matter is that of the spir- who had patiently advocated its adoption. He announced itual adviser”, and they deliberately refuse “to his intention to resign within a week of the outcome of the voting becoming known. enunciate incontrovertible Christian principles 20 Office of Communication of The Episcopal of universal validity” (a reference to natural law), Church: To Set our Hope on Christ: A Response to the preferring instead to stand alongside people who Invitation of Windsor Report, 2005, par. 135 and 2.25; have complex ethical decisions to make, and hop- available online at http://anglicancommunion.org/wind- 23 sor2004/section_c/p9.cfm; accessed 25.04.2012. ing to bring “insight” to them. There is no 21 Ibid. par. 2.2-2.15. attempt to require assent to particular teaching, 22 Church of England. Moral Welfare Council: or to enforce it by requiring penance or with- The Family in Contemporary Society, London: SPCK, 1958. holding communion. Perhaps unfairly Anglicans 23 Ibid. 130-131. might see Catholic pastoral theology as more 24 Ibid. 150-151.

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(Jn 3,5) and may be found in the lives and actions despite Erasmus pointing out that the Vulgate of people extra ecclesiam in ways we are slow to translation of mustèrion (that is, sacramentum) appreciate. failed to establish its sacramental character.26 In our new Common Worship Marriage Service 3.2. How might Roman Catholics read (2000)27 no mention is made of “sacrament” at Anglican Developments? all. (2) Approval of “further marriage”: Although An honest answer might be “with bewilderment the Church of England is one of the last prov- and disbelief”! At least four new difficulties have inces of the Anglican Communion to authorise emerged. further marriages (at the discretion of its minis- (1) Neo-biblicism: The growing global influ- ters and in accordance with their consciences), ence of evangelicalism and old-fashioned Puri- this development will strengthen the suspicion tanism, some of it blended with charismatic of Cardinal Kasper and many Catholics that enthusiasm, now dominates entire Provinces in Anglicanism is becoming steadily more Protes- the Third World where church growth is con- tant. siderable, and where local archbishops have little (3) Consecration of women bishops: There may idea of what the Catholic tradition is (except that be women bishops in England by 2013. This they don’t like it). This “Protestant spirit” with development will further emphasise disagreement its emphasis on sola scriptura (and consequent over women priests. disregard for tradition and reason) lies at the root (4) New divisions over same-sex partnerships: of the ugly dogmatism of present controversies. These are now so deep, and the focus for so Biblicism is increasingly taking over. many other issues, that the Catholic representa- Earlier the studied ambiguity of the Anglican tives on ARCIC III, will have trouble thinking treatment of sacramentality was mentioned. that the Anglican representatives all come from I refer to it again, not to attempt to resolve the the same body. conundrum just described, but to notice that talk of sacramentality has all but disappeared in rela- 3.3. How might Anglicans Read Roman tion to marriage. And this, I think, is a measure Catholic Developments? of the extent of the withdrawal from Catholic- sounding doctrines and ideas. In 1999 the With gloom! (1) Anglo-Catholic disappointments: bishops of the Church of England produced a The movement in the Anglican Communion teaching document Marriage. Ever since the which perhaps most naturally looks to Rome for Reformation there has been a problem about inspiration and solidarity is Affirming Catholi- marriage: if it isn’t a sacrament, whatever is it? cism. It seeks “to bring together and strengthen That problem wasn’t resolved in this document lay and ordained people who recognize the pos- either, but the Bishops stated: itive, inclusive and joyful currents in the Catho- The description of Christian marriage as a “sacra- lic tradition of Christianity”.28 Yet on the two ment” is valued because it has its source in the biggest issues which divide us from Rome, the New Testament (the “great mystery’”of Eph 5,32), admission of women to the episcopate29 and the although the term does not have exactly the same place of partnered lesbian and gay people in the sense as when it is applied to the two “sacraments church,30 there is a growing distance. of the Gospel”, baptism and eucharist.25 (2) Coetibus Anglicanorum: We do not like It is not valued because there is a rich seam of Coetibus Anglicanorum. It is not that members Catholic tradition to be explored about the grace and supporters of Affirming Catholicism object of God to be enjoyed in the sacrament of mar- to provision being made for some Anglo-Cath- riage, but because it is in the Bible after all – olics to be received by Rome. The manner of the

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issue of this document, without consultation or having the arguments about it which we cannot warning, together with its assumption, in its avoid. opening sentence, that those Anglicans who (2) Philosophies of Difference. We may have “petition repeatedly and insistently to be received learned in the last fifty years to treat difference into full Catholic communion” are moved by the differently. In a sinful world, difference becomes Holy Spirit,31 did nothing to improve relations “otherness”, and otherness too easily becomes the between the churches. pretext for violence. When there is a strong need (3) Conservative Theologies of Sexuality and for identity, otherness is emphasised; yet when Gender: The Encyclical Inter Insigniores (1976) there is no such need, distinctiveness can be com- and the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis promised. Re-readings of early Christianity show (1994) state the Vatican position on the ordina- how diffuse the young religion actually was. Per- tion of women, but the door is now so firmly haps a greater respect for difference would have shut that the many revisionary arguments and improved the witness the Church made to the theologies of gender which have convinced the divine Love? The recognition of difference in the great majority of Anglicans, cannot now be given area of gender, of post-colonial theology and the weight they deserve in the development of much else (including ethnicity, colonialism and Catholic teaching.32 It is difficult to see how this class), has become hugely important. While men gap can be prevented from widening further. and women have biological differences, the roles which are built on these need not be determined 3.4. After Ecumenism

(1) The Incredulity of the World. The world 25 Church of England. House of Bishops: Marriage: cannot believe that our sexual teaching is in such A Teaching Document, London: Church House Pub- a mess. We have moved from a time when girls lishing, 1999, 13. and boys were regularly betrothed at seven and 26 See Erasmus’ defence in Responsio 2, Annotatio 188, LB IX 225 / ASD IX 4 244, in J. Phillips (ed.): Con- married off at twelve and fourteen, to a time troversies with Edward Lee, Toronto: University of when, for good reasons, the average age of first Toronto Press, 2005 (Collected Works of Erasmus; 72), marriage is around thirty. Yet we still officially 296-298. 27 http://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/wor- expect women and men to lack sexual experience ship/texts/pastoral/marriage/marriage.aspx; accessed prior to marriage. Modern Protestantism knows 25.04.2012. little of the history of marriage, especially the 28 http://www.affirmingcatholicism.org.uk/pages/default. asp?id=1&sID=12; accessed 25.04.2012. rich version of it found in the writings of 29 See J. Steen/M. Steadman [for Affirming Catholicism John Paul II. The Protestant Churches think the UK & The Society of Catholic Priests]: Women Bishops: Bible proscribes homosexuality (even though Understanding the Arguments, 2011, available online at http://www.affirmingcatholicism.org.uk/userFiles/File/ Jesus said nothing about it) yet they condone WomenBishops-2011-OnlineColour.pdf; accessed divorce (even though Jesus said plenty about that 25.04.2012. and did not condone it). The double standard of 30 See for example, the statement “We value…models of love, friendship and community for all seeking to follow biblicism here is obvious. Our world has come the gospel, irrespective of ethnicity, gender, disability to understand sexual attraction differently (just or sexual orientation”, available online at http://www. as we now understand our bodies differently affirmingcatholicism.org.uk/pages/default.asp?id=1; without the aid of humour theory, invading spir- accessed 25.04.2012. 31 Anglicanorum Coetibus, 2009, available online at http:// its and homunculi). Yet the churches are still www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/apost_consti- quoting Genesis 1 to proof-text the late modern tutions/documents/hf_ben-xvi_apc_20091104_anglica- theory of sexual complementarity, as if God had norum-coetibus_en.html; accessed 25.04.2012. 32 See A. Thatcher: God, Sex and Gender, Chichester: made the world in six days. While Anglicans are Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, for a critique of some of these in a dreadful mess over sexuality, we are at least arguments.

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in advance. They can be constructed, even constructed after the manner of the new creation in Christ. The differences are not denied, but they are not disqualifying either. (3) The Church after Ecumenism. The churches Adrian Thatcher is Visiting Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion may have come as far as they can down the ecu- at the University of Exeter, UK. For 27 menical road. Heaven knows where ARCIC III years (1977-2004) he has taught at the Col- is leading. Most Anglicans would have rejected lege of St Mark and St John, Plymouth. ARCIC II if they had known about it, and trou- For most of that time he was Head of bled themselves to see the version of Anglicanism Theology, and for 10 years the Professor to which their representatives had signed them of Applied Theology there. Before that he up. Having been an ardent supporter of ecumen- was a Baptist Minister (1966-74), and Lec- ism for nearly fifty years, I am saddened to think turer at St. Paul’s College, Cheltenham. that the “post-ecumenical” period has already His numerous books include: Marriage After Modernity: Christian Marriage in begun, at least in the areas of sexuality and gen- Postmodern Times, Sheffield: Sheffield Aca- der where the churches are moving backwards demic Press, 1999; Celebrating Christian and further apart. Our differences seem greater Marriage (ed.), Edinburgh: T&T Clark, now than in 1994, both within and between the 2002; Living Together and Christian Ethics, churches. Cambridge: CUP, 2002; Theology and Families, Malden, MA-Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2007; God, Sex and Gender, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.

• Summary Marriage and Pastoral Problems from an Anglican Perspective

In relation to the “pastoral prob- ments are measured against the ordination of partnered gay men, lems and opportunities” sur- report ARCIC II. The Anglican and women, to the episcopate, rounding Anglican and Roman teachings about the sacramental- have placed new problems on the Catholic teaching about mar- ity of marriage have reached an agenda of disagreements. In these riage, the author argues that ecu- impasse. Meanwhile the pastoral circumstances the author believes menism has gone into reverse. problems raised by cohabitation that it is difficult to see what The two churches are moving and same-sex relations, and the ARCIC III can achieve. further apart. Recent develop- ecclesial problems raised by the

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