Oh, come, come! You are no more a child of sin than any Jew, or Mohammedan, or Nonconformist, or anyone else born outside the Church. But you see how it affects my view of the situation. To me there is only one marriage that is holy: the Church's sacrament of marriage. Outside that, I can recognize no distinction between one civil contract and another. There was a time when all marriages were made in Heaven. But because the Church was unwise and would not make its ordinances reasonable, its power over men and women was taken away from it; and marriages gave place to contracts at a registry office. And now that our Governments refuse to make these contracts reasonable, those whom we in our blindness drove out of the Church will be driven out of the registry office; and we shall have the history of Ancient Rome repeated. We shall be joined by our solicitors for seven, fourteen, or twenty-one years--or perhaps months. Deeds of partnership will replace the old vows. (THE GENERAL: Would you, a Bishop, approve of such partnerships?) Do you think that I, a Bishop, approve of the Deceased Wife's Sister Act? That did not prevent its becoming law.

The Bishop Monologue from Getting Married

Rehearse The Bishop's monologue