George Carey: "Divorce is OK - marriage is not"

Carey Warns of Church Crisis if Charles Weds

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, has said that the Church of England would be thrown into crisis if the Prince of Wales were to remarry.

At a news conference in Australia - where he's helping to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the country's Anglican church - Dr Carey said Prince Charles's divorce posed no obstacle to the throne.

If the Prince were to ascend the throne he would automatically become Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Dr Carey saw no problem with that.

"All that Prince Charles has to be is the next heir to the throne. So the very fact that he is divorced is not an issue at all," he said.

"Now it is true that remarriage would create a crisis for the church - this is well known."

It is the clearest statement that Dr Carey has made on the subject and it will be welcomed by traditionally-minded Anglicans who believe the Church should uphold the teaching that marriage ought to be indissoluble.

Among those who have already expressed alarm at the possibility of Charles being Defender of the Faith as an unrepentant adulterer is his local vicar, Rev. John Hawthorne.

The Archbishop took care to add that the Prince had said he had no intention of marrying again. The BBC's religious affairs correspondent says that, so far as Dr Carey is concerned, remarriage remains a very remote contingency.