The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1907-10-19
GENERAL CONVENTION
WILL NOT MODIFY LAW
EPISCOPALIAN DIGNITARIES DE-
CLINE TO CHANGE d.
VORCE CANON.

of marriage in the Episcopal church.
which was discussed and rejected at
the session of the general con-
vention which is being held 1t Rich
mond. Va, has excited considerable
local interest in the question that was
discussed there; in the present laws
of the church regarding marriage and
in the proposed change which was
rejected.
Rev. G. c. Hunting, rector of St.
Bartholomew Episcopal church, was
asked by The News last night to eX-
plain the present laws of the church
and to detail the changes which were
proposed
THE laws of the church regard
ing marriage of divorced persons ire
set forth in the Digest of Canons, the
official digest of all the laws of the
Episcopal church. The section re-
lating to marriage and divorce reads
as follows
Laws as They Are.
- No minister. knowingly after due
inquiry, shall solemnize the marriage
of any person who has been or is
the husband or the wife OF any other
person then living. from whom he or
she has been divorced for any cause
arising after marriage. But this
Canon shall not be held to apply to
the innocent party in q divorce for
adultery; provided, that before the
application for such marriage a Pc
riod of not less than one year shall
have elapsed after the granting of
such divorce; and that satisfactory
evidence touching the facts in tic
/ -,
decree, and record if practicable,
with proof that the defendant was
personally served or appeared in the
action, be laid before the ecclesiasti-
cal authority, and such ecclesiastical
authority having taken legal advice
thereon, shall have declared in witt
ing that in his Judgment the case of
the applicant conforms to the re-
quirements of this Canon; and, pro-
vided. further, that it shall be within
the discretion of any minister to de-
cline to solemniZe any marriage
Proposed Substitute.
THE proposed substitute Cor this
was as follows:
:" No minister shall solemniZe
marriage between any two persons
unless by inquiry he shall have sat
isfied himself that neither has been
or is the husband or wife of any other
person then living, from whom he
or she has been divorced for any
cause arising after marriage.
'"The subject of marriage and di-
vOrce has been matter of discus
sion at several conventions. Up to
1904, the canon on marriage and di-
vorce was even less stringent than
4 H., to Iat I,n
ter was not referred to the bishop for
his Judgment thereon, neither was
the decree OF the court an record re-
quired.
No Scriptural Sanction.
''There seems to be little doubt
that the New Testament as inter
preted in the light of modern re-
search does not sanction re-marriage
after divorce for any cause. The
famous passage in ST. Matthew by
our Lord, which has been Interpreted
to give such permission has been
found tc coincide with tho three pas
sages elsewhere found in the gospel
wherein no exceptions are made.
"The church has always endeavor-
ed TO conform her laws ana doctrines
with the New Testament. Since the
latest Interpretation has been given
to this disputed passage many within
the church have felt that the law
should be changed. The leader in
this movement has been the Right
Rev. William C. Doane, bishop of AL
bany. The canon rejected at this
convention was proposed by him.
For many years many clergymen
of the church have refused to re-
marry any persons divorced for any
cause These men had hoped that
the proposed canon would be adopted
at this convention, and they feel even
now, that the day is not far distant
when the Episcopal church will take
the stand long since taken by the
Roman church with the added ad-
vantage that this church will grant
no special dispensations for favored
persons.
"The passage on which the conten-
tion of the ultra-conservatives was
based. the Interpretation of which
has been so long disputed, is found
in the ninth verse of the nineteenth
chapter of the Gospel according to
st. Matthew