RECTOR SUPPORTS DIVORCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12537, 7 May 1915, Page 7

RECTOR SUPPORTS DIVORCE.

A sensation in church -circles has been caused by a. Lenten sermon of the Rev . Percy Stickncy Giant, rector of the Protestant Episcopal church of the Ascension, one of the most fashionable churches in New York, advocating tree;- divorce. "If marriage is founded on the affection of two persons- for each other, as a marriage in America is supposed to be, he said, "with the disappearance of such sentiment disappears the only ground for marriage." The present law of the Episcopal church, which recognises only one cause for divorce and permits that- clergy to remarry only the innocent party, is characterised by Mr Grant as "not Protestant, not- English, not- modern." but Roman and mediaeval and not representative of the opinions of the'majoritv of the communicants. ' The old marriage laws, he went on, considered women merely as the chattels of their husbands. The Tenth Commandment forbade coveting one s neighbour's wife just as it forbade coveting his ox or ass! There was no idea, of spiritual wrong to the neighbour in this prohibtion—merely of' property -wrong. After referring "to the recommendations of the Royal Commission in favour of more liberal divorce laws, the rector said^: '"Divorce 's not so selfishly individualistic as is seems to the ultra-conservative. The family should be the place,where the children can be trained to the highest conception of love and duty. There could be no greater obstacle to their pruper development than distrust and discord between parents. Take a sane, fearless attitude on this question of divorce. . and do not let .yourselves be put down by sneers or .shrugs." Mr Grant's utterances have aroused a storm of denunciation. Dr William Manning, the rector of Trinity, the oldest and the richest church in New York, brands them as ..the advocacy of free love, while Bishop Greer-, the head of the diocese, has intimated. Lliat only the fact, that MiGrant had spoken as an individual and not for the church saved him from the danger of a trial for heresy. Mr Grant of late years has attracted much attention by his practice of inviting laymen who are exponents of various radical _ views to address Sunday afternoon gatherings at the Parish.-House —a practice which has brought- liini into serious disputes with the conservative element among his parishioners, who have forced him to modify his programme,