THE BISHOP OF SYDNEY AND THE DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
shall be glad to be allowed to contradict a report, put forth in your columns by Mr. Broadhurst, M.P., that I have directed or advised the Clergy of the Diocese of Sydney to repel from communion those who have contracted marriage with a deceased wife's sister. There is not the slightest foundation for such a statement ; and I venture to think that (especially as it could not be contradicted for some months) it should not have been given to the world, under cover of the vague phrase, "it is reported," without some pains to ascertain its accuracy.
The Bishops of New South Wales have collectively advised their Clergy to obey the law of the Church of England by declining to celebrate such marriages. The law of the Colony (most unhappily, as I think) allows them; but, of course, it imposes no obligation to celebrate them, leaving each religious body to be guided by its own laws. I do not suppose that the warmest advocates of the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill in England would dream of attempting any coercion in this matter.
Except in this common action of the Episcopate of the Province, I have taken no step whatever. Personally, for reasons which I have publicly given, I hold that these marriages are, in themselves and in their logical consequences, injurious to the highest welfare of humane society, and at variance with the Christian idea of marriage ; and I shall always use any influence which I possess to discourage them. But discourage- ment is one thing ; excommunication is altogether another.— I am, Sir, &c.,
Previous page
