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The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
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a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
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October 2005 |
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Plighting one’s trothEvery time a starry-eyed couple turn up to see if they can ‘book the church for a wedding’, we have to fill out yet another fine example of government paperwork, a Notice of Intended Marriage’. On the back of the form is my favourite question, ‘Are the parties related to each other?’ To my profound and everlasting disappointment, no-one has ever said ‘yes’. If they ever do, I’d probably pick myself up off the floor, down a large brandy, and delve into the labyrinthine Commonwealth Marriage Act to determine who can plight their troth to whom. Once upon a time, you just had to look at the very last page in the Book of Common Prayer. During boring sermons (no names, no pack drill), I used to amuse myself by looking at that page with the intriguing title ‘A Table of Kindred and Affinity’, subtitled ‘wherein whosoever are related are forbidden by the Church of England to marry together’. I am relieved to find that, since she died before I was alive and kicking, there’s no chance of my accidentally marrying my father’s father’s wife; and, since she got married already this year, I am unlikely to get entangled with my brother’s daughter. Aren’t relationships the weirdest thing?
Doug Edmonds is rector of Holy Trinity, Launceston
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