Anglican Bishops Offer New Plan on Remarriage for the Divorced

The Church of England, established by the much-wedded King Henry VIII, took a step Tuesday toward approving remarriage for divorced people--an issue that may be of keen interest to Britain’s next king.

Recommendations published by a group of bishops, if adopted by the church’s governing General Synod in 2002, could make it easier for Prince Charles to contemplate marriage to his longtime love, Camilla Parker Bowles.

Charles, who has been free to remarry since former wife Princess Diana died in a 1997 car crash, has said he does not intend to do so.

But the church’s main concern is dealing with the realities of a nation with a divorce rate of nearly 40%--one of the highest in Europe. Roughly one-third of Anglican priests already remarry divorced people, and the church says 10% of its marriages involve people who have been divorced.

Among the conditions of the new plan: Divorced people should be honest about the reasons for the failure of their previous marriage, adequate provision should be made for supporting children, the new relationship should not be the cause of the previous marriage’s breakup, and “a reasonable time” should have passed since the divorce.

Bishops also recommended that remarriage should normally not be permitted for people who have been involved in more than one divorce.