Letter to Clergy regarding remarriage of divorced persons

Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney

Dr Philip Selden
Diocesan Registrar and Personal Assistant to the Archbishop

18 March 2003

To All Clergy
Re: Remarriage of Divorced Persons

Those of you who read the Australian newspaper may have been surprised to see in the edition, 13 March, 2003, the statement that ‘the Archbishop leaves decisions about the remarriage of divorcees to the local clergy.  In the past, all such cases had to get a Bishop’s approval’.

I am writing to let you know that the situation has not changed.  Before agreeing to remarry a divorced person, permission still needs to be sought from the Regional Bishop.

May I remind you also that the law of the land requires that Anglican clergy should conduct weddings only according to Anglican rites, and that although this disappoints some people, it is generally not possible to conduct a wedding anywhere other than in a church building.

Yours sincerely

Philip Selden
Diocesan Registrar and Personal Assistant to the Archbishop