Muriel Porter discusses Sydney Anglican's approach to love and marriage (on page 19),which differs from the rest of the Anglican Church in Australia... Remarriage after divorce is problematic for Sydney Anglicans. The Sydney position remains unchanged from what it was in 1918: "a member of the clergy may conduct the marriage of a divorced person (whose spouse is living) only where the former marriage is dissolved due to the infidelity of the other partner..."
Sydney clergy must not be married to divorcees, and rectors in particular are requested to be a married men... possibly because of an underlying fear that singleness might mask an unacceptable sexual identity or that a man might fall prey to sexual temptation.
Muriel Porter's book is so interesting; no wonder Mark Thompson and Michael Jensen tried to play it down as a rehash of her previous book! I've read both and they are really different! It explains the importance of female subordination...the clergy's job is reliant on the wife's submission!
And I do all of Lisa Nolland's investigative work!
At the wonderful church I attended for 3 years in Sydney (obviously not a Jensenite church) there is an excellent assistant priest. He acted as rector for about a year during a recent interregnum. He is a good family man. Even the bishop commented on how he would make a good rector. However his great impediment is thathe married a divorcee. I give up at the stupidity of the narrow minded zealots in Sydney.
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