Archbishop gives Prince his blessing to ‘make their vows before God’
Rumours Royal wedding is to be held in St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle towards the end of April
EVERYBODY loves a Royal wedding. But the Archbishop of Canterbury’s “absolute delight”, made clear in his message of congratulation, also signals his approval for Meghan Markle, a divorcee, to marry Prince Harry in church.
“I am so happy that Prince Harry and Ms Markle have chosen to make their vows before God,” said the Most Reverend Justin Welby in a statement yesterday. “I wish them many years of love, happiness and fulfilment and ask that God blesses them throughout their married life together.”
Such effusiveness will be seen as an official blessing, giving the couple the green light to marry in church.
The Prince – if he hasn’t done so already – will likely seek permission from the Archbishop to allow him to marry Ms Markle in a church ceremony. The Archbishop is expected, as is tradition, to officiate at the ceremony, to be held in the spring.
The Archbishop must grant a licence for marriages not held in parish churches, while the officiating priest must give the go-ahead for divorcees wanting a church wedding.
The date and location will be made public today but speculation is rife that Prince Harry and Ms Markle will wed at St George’s Chapel, Windsor.
One possible date is Friday April 20, after Windsor Castle posted on its website that it will be closed to the public on that day while the State Apartments are shut on April 19 and April 21 as well. It is unusual for Windsor Castle to be closed entirely to the public, although one possible explanation is that it is the Queen’s birthday that weekend.
It is thought that both Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral are too big while the chapel, with a capacity for about 800 guests and inside the castle’s grounds, will be more suitable.
Downing Street has already declared the marriage will not be marked with a bank holiday, suggesting the couple are planning a lower-key celebration than the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding in 2011. The timing of the wedding will need to avoid the birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s third child. Kensington Palace has said the due date is in April and Prince Harry and Ms Markle will want to avoid clashing with the birth.
Convention dictates that the Archbishop of Canterbury presides over Royal weddings. Lambeth Palace refused to discuss details of the forthcoming nuptials, although the Archbishop voiced his approval last night in the statement in which he said he was “absolutely delighted” and noted that he had “met Prince Harry on a number of occasions”.
The Archbishop added: “Marriage is a special and joyous commitment, one that Jesus celebrated with friends at the wedding in Cana [where Jesus turned water into wine].”
Since 2002, following a ruling by the General Synod, divorced people have been allowed to marry in the Church of England “in exceptional circumstances”. Couples must ask the minister who is to conduct the service whether they are prepared to let the marriage go ahead, and clergy may refuse on grounds of conscience to officiate at the wedding of a divorcee. The Archbishop of Canterbury will have no problem with that, having presided over the wedding of a divorcee before – Ailsa Anderson, his director of communications, who married journalist Simon Cole in September.
Ms Markle divorced her first husband in 2013, long before she met Prince Harry, meaning that the officiating clergy need not worry about whether their participation in the ceremony is “tantamount to consecrating an old infidelity”.
Clergy and bishops are asked to consider whether “the relationship between the applicants – so far as you can tell from the information made available to you – [was] a direct cause of the breakdown of the former marriage?”
This is not an issue in the case of Ms Markle but could have been relevant to the wedding of Prince Charles to Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005, both of whom were divorced. Diana, Princess of Wales famously said there were “three people” in her marriage to the Prince, and the couple’s adulterous history was seen as relevant to the decision of then-archbishop Dr Rowan Williams to refuse permission for them to marry in church. This precedent suggests he is not likely to object to marrying the Prince to Ms Markle.
In order to allow a couple to marry in a cathedral or a non-parish church, the Archbishop must also grant a special licence. It is thought such a licence applies to St George’s Chapel.
The chapel has been a favourite wedding venue for the Royal family. Prince Edward married Sophie Rhysjones in 1999 and in 2008, Peter Phillips – the son of the Princess Royal and the Queen’s oldest grandson – wed Autumn Kelly. A service of prayer was held for Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall following their civil wedding in April 2005.