Bishop allows church weddings for divorcees

There has been a fall in church ceremonies

Divorcees are to be able to remarry in churches in Suffolk after a bishop relaxed strict laws preventing it.

The Rt Rev Richard Lewis, Bishop of Edmundsbury and Ipswich, said he was happy for priests in his diocese to remarry divorcees.

"If a parish priest has a couple coming for the right reasons, the right motivations and he or she is happy to marry them, the Bishop will not make a fuss," said a spokesman.

Many divorcees who decide to remarry want a church wedding because they want the blessing of the church.

Church wedding decline

1991: 49% opt for civil ceremony

1999: 62% opt for civil ceremony

The diocese's Bishop's Council voted in favour of the principle that there were circumstances when divorcees could remarry in a church.

Bishop Lewis has also led a working party into the rising number of marriages that take place outside churches and ways of winning couples back to the church.

It studied rules that mean couples have to marry in a parish where one of them lives and have to have banns read out on three Sundays before the wedding.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics in January showed that the trend to hold weddings away from a church is continuing.

Some couples have even held ceremonies under water

In 1999, 62% of couples opted for a civil ceremony rather than a church service, compared to only 49% in 1991.

Following a law change in April 1995 couples have been able to get married in places other than churches and register offices.

These include hotels, football grounds and tourist attractions like the Blackpool Tower and The London Eye.

One couple in north London decided to opt for a more hi-tech solution - getting married on the internet.

'Sex abuse'

Ravi Ram and Mamta Patel exchanged their vows at Brent register office in August in front of a webcam.

It was the first time in England and Wales that a register office wedding was broadcast live online.

But Bishop Lewis's proposals have not gone down well with all the priests in his diocese.

Reverend Roger Smith, rector of three parishes near Saxmundham, Suffolk, criticised divorcing parents in a church newsletter.

When a judge issues a divorce decree where children are involved, both parents should be investigated for child abuse

Rev Roger Smith

He said the one thing most children could not cope with was their parents' divorce - ahead of drunkenness, violence and illness.

Rev Smith wrote: "Divorce causes children to fail at school, to become drug addicts, to become criminals.

"We hear a lot about child abuse these days. My view is that when a judge issues a divorce decree where children are involved, both parents should be investigated for child abuse, not physical, but mental and spiritual."

The spokesman for Bishop Lewis said he did not share Rev Smith's views.

"They are not sentiments the Bishop would support and the Rev Smith is taking a position a lot of churchgoers would not be comfortable with," he said.