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Marriage and Pastoral Problems from an Anglican Perspective

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Marriage and Pastoral Problems from an Anglican Perspective Adrian Thatcher Marriage and Pastoral Problems from an Anglican Perspective 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. 26 INTAMS review 18, 26-32. doi: 10.2143/INT.18.1.2164159 © 2012 by INTAMS review. All rights reserved 995612_Intams_12/1_04.indd5612_Intams_12/1_04.indd 2266 77/08/12/08/12 114:164:16 A. Thatcher 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. 27 995612_Intams_12/1_04.indd5612_Intams_12/1_04.indd 2277 77/08/12/08/12 114:164:16 INTAMS review 18 (2012) 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
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