Folia Theologica et Canonica, Supplementum (2016)
Hanns Engelhardt, Marriage and Divorce In Anglican Canon Law
58 HANNS ENGELHARDT Church to contract a marriage and to instruct the contracting parties as to the nature of Matrimony, its responsibilities and “the means of grace which God has provided through his Church” (Can. 41 Sec. 3 (a) and (b)). Further a procedure was provided by which a person could apply to the Bishop or an ecclesiastical court constituted by diocesan canon to have a former marriage declared null and void by reason of one of a list of impediments:37 1. Consanguinity (whether of the whole or of the half-blood) within the following degrees: (a) One may not marry one’s ascendant or descendant. (b) One may not marry one’s sister. (c) One may not marry the sister or brother of one’s ascendant or the descendant of one’s brother or sister. 2. Lack of free consent of either party. 3. Mistake as to the identity of either party. 4. Mental deficiency of either party sufficient to prevent the exercise of intelligent choice. 5. Insanity of either party. 6. Failure of either party to have reached the age of puberty. 7. Impotence of either party undisclosed to the other. 8. The existence of venereal disease in either party. 9. Facts which would make the proposed marriage bigamous. According to Can. 1.18 (2012) members of the clergy are obliged to conform to the state laws concerning marriage as well as to the relevant laws of the church (sec. 1). As the Episcopal Church is living in different jurisdictions there may be different secular regulations concerning the possibility of creation a marriage to be observed in the several dioceses. Solemnization of a marriage presupposes that at least one of the parties has received Holy Baptism, both parties have been duly instructed as to the nature, meaning and purpose of Holy Matrimony and that Holy Matrimony is a physical and spiritual union, entered into within the community of faith, by mutual consent and with intent that it be lifelong, the intention of the parties to contract marriage in that sense has been signified at least thirty days in advance, which requirement may be dispensed with for weighty reasons which dispensation the officiating clergyperson is obliged to report to the Bishop immediately in writing (Sec. 3 [a]). 37 White, E. A. - Dykman, J. A., Annotated Constitution and Canons for the Government of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 407.
