Archbishops' Commission on Affinity

Correspondence, minutes, evidence and papers created by the Commission.

Appraisal has been carried out within files according to institutional appraisal guidelines. Copies of Hansard for the relevant dates have been removed as these can be found online. The collection includes papers collected by members of the commission and this structure has been maintained. Where documents are duplicates of the circulated documents of the commission they have been removed unless this would impact the readability of the individual files.

General International Standard Archival Description (ISAD[G]), 2nd edition, 1999.

GS Report: No Just Cause, 1984, PB5 LS/CPT/30 RUNCIE/MAIN/1981/91

The commission was established in 1979 by Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury to consider the question of marriages between step relations. The chairman was Baroness Nancy Seear and Mr Lionel Lennox and the Rev Michael Atkinson were the Secretaries. Other members were Sir George Baker, Canon Gordon Dunstan, Dr Robert Hart, Mrs Ruth Hook, Miss Janet Mattinson, Canon Oliver O'Donovan and Miss Joan Robinson. Their terms of reference were: "(a) To review the working of the present law bearing on marriage of persons related by affinity, taking account of theological, sociological and legal issues and of the practice in other States. (b) To consider whether any general modifications in the law are called for in modern circumstancers and/or (c) Whether exceptions should be allowed in particular cases and, if so, according to what criteria and by what procedure these should be authorised."