BANNS OF MATRIMONY

banns of matrimony.Family law. Public notice of an intended marriage. • The notice is given to ensure that objections to the marriage would be voiced before the wedding. Banns are still common in many churches. — Also spelled bans of matrimony. — Also termed banns of marriage.

[Cases: Marriage  24.]

“A minister is not obliged to publish banns of matrimony unless the persons to be married deliver to him, at least seven days before the intended first publication, a notice in writing stating the Christian name and surname and the place of residence of each of them and the period during which each has resided there…. Banns are to be published in an audible manner and in the form of words prescribed by the rubric prefixed to the office of matrimony in the Book of Common Prayer on three Sundays preceding the solemnisation of marriage during morning service or, if there be no morning service on a Sunday on which they are to be published, during evening service.” Mark Hill, Ecclesiastical Law 136 (2d ed. 2001) (dealing with practice in the Church of England).[Blacks Law 8th]