LONDON - Divorcees may remarry in church in "exceptional circumstances," the Church of England's governing body decided Thursday, making ecclesiastical law conform to existing practice.
The General Synod voted by 308 to 110 in favor of rescinding acts which declared the church should not provide a wedding to "anyone who has a former partner, still living."
Press reports have speculated that the change would pave the way for Prince Charles to marry Camilla Parker Bowles, whose former husband is still living. Charles, however, says he has no plans to remarry.
Church of England clergy already had an absolute right to preside at remarriages, and many have done so.
The repeal of the acts — endorsed in a preliminary vote in July — was considered important as expressing the whole church's agreement with remarriage in some cases. And the same legal right which allowed clergy to marry divorcees also allows them to refuse.
That will pose an obstacle for many couples because the Church of England requires that at least one of the people seeking marriage must reside in the parish, so that couples cannot shop around for a sympathetic vicar.
The new policy "is a recognition that not only do marriages break down and people want to get married again but many of them are often Christians who are mortified," Bishop of Winchester Michael Scott-Joynt said after the vote.
"Some people have come or come back to Christian faith after divorce as they are compassionately treated by the clergy in the parish.
"We have been struggling to walk this tightrope of wanting to say both marriage is a fundamentally important gift of God to be respected and advocated and we believe that God is quite prepared to forgive and to make possible fresh starts," Scott-Joynt said.
Some synod members expressed unease about the change.
The Rev. Richard Seabrook, from Chelmsford, wondered what he could say to faithful Christians who had been told in the past that they could not be remarried.
"Those people will be very confused and perhaps hurt," Seabrook said.
"If they (clergy) are going to say 'yes to Karen and no to Susan' then that's going to create strife in parishes," said Margaret Brown, a lay member from Chichester. "The exceptional cases, I believe, will become the norm."
Nearly 40 percent of marriages in England and Wales end in divorce — one of the highest rates in Europe. Roughly one-third of Church of England priests already remarry divorcees, and the church says 10 percent of church weddings now involve divorcees.
The church, which broke from Rome because of King Henry VIII's wish to be freed of his first wife, has officially barred second weddings in church for divorcees since the 17th century.