Annulment Of Anglican Marriages

[faithcecelia]

I know that they Church does not consider Anglican sacraments to be valid any longer. Why is it then that converts who have been married in the Anglican church need annulments after divorce but those married in other protestant churches do not? Surely if the sacraments are not valid (ie not sacraments) then they d not need to be annuled? Thanks.

[CatherineM]

Any marriage needs to be annulled before someone can remarry in the Catholic Church. It's actually easier to annul a marriage if you are a Catholic than if you were Protestant when you get married because Catholics are required to go through procedures before getting married. For example, Catholics are required to get married in church in front of a priest (unless given a dispensation beforehand). We don't expect Protestants to do the same. We alway assume a marriage is valid until it is shown to have been otherwise. It's the one sacrament that is conferred not by the priest, but by the spouses to each other. The priest is there as a witness.