"The change in attitude from 1920 to 1958 was brought about partly by social changes. In 1920 there was widespread fear of under population, while in 1958 prospects of over population aroused anxiety, especially in India, Africa and the West Indies, all strongly represented at the Conference. A second factor affecting the decision was the modern development of knowledge of the safe period, showing that nature provided her own method of birth control. A third influence was the theological development of the doctrine of Christian marriage which had taken place since 1920. The Conference of that year had been unequivocal in stressing procreation as the primary purpose of marriage, and this had been repeated in 1930. The 1958 Conference, on the other hand, did not stress the reproductive end of marriage in this way. Biblical revelation, it was agreed, did not limit the function of sexuality and the family to the reproductive process, but stressed equally the companionate purpose of marriage. These two ends are not separable in importance, “are not subordinated one to the other; they are not directly related to one another; their relationship, in the developing experience of Israel, is to be found in yet a third area-that of the place of the family in giving responsible security to the children born of the love of husband and wife.” A parallel development in Anglican theology has been the increasing stress on “henosis”, the union of man and wife in one flesh, that takes place within the marriage relationship. Christ himself stressed this aspect of marriage, and St Paul developed the doctrine. The act of ‘’coitus’’, far from being a merely physiological device to perpetuate the race, has a quasi-sacramental character, of the highest importance in developing the personal and spiritual life of the married couple. Traditional theology is inadequate in stressing the procreative purpose of marriage and understanding the intrinsic importance of the sexual act. Some writers have gone so far as to suggest it is ‘’henosis’’ that is primary in marriage and not procreation."