Harry and Meghan: Can you remarry in church after divorce?
by Callum May, BBC:
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are to marry at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in May. But what effect does the fact that she is divorced have on the wedding?
The first words uttered by a priest after the moment that he or she has legally married a couple in the Church of England are: “Those whom God has joined together let no-one put asunder.”
But 42% of marriages in England and Wales end in divorce, according to the Office for National Statistics’ 2016 figures. This year it was revealed that a quarter of people who marry have done so before.
So even allowing for those who choose to remarry in civil ceremonies, the Church must inevitably be asked to marry some people who are divorced.
The Church of England did not officially permit remarriage after divorce from the 17th Century until the 21st.
The rules were almost certainly breached informally. But it was only in 2002 that the General Synod, the church’s legislative body, allowed remarriage in church of divorced people whose former partners were still alive, in “exceptional circumstances”.
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