Divorce - a challenge to the Church

Reviewed by Ministry Today - Spring 2009

I was curious to read this book, not only as a minister, but also as someone married to a woman who was previously divorced. Bob Mayo, an Anglican priest in Shepherd's Bush, best known for his research into youth and spirituality, went through a divorce a few years ago. He does not seek to examine the biblical texts about marriage and divorce to revisit debates about indissolubility and remarriage in church. Rather, he seeks to reflect theologically on the fact and experience of being a divorced person. In doing so, he takes those of us who have not been inside that painful process to places we have not visited. He finds a model for what he has endured in the Babylonian Exile, particularly in Brueggemann's reading of it. He provides a helpful chapter of 'dos and don'ts' in dealing with the divorced. He argues for the pastoral appropriateness of a church service to mark the end of a marriage, and he reproduces prayers from the Methodist publication 'Vows and Partings'.

Ultimately, this was not a book for people like my wife. It makes too many academic theological demands on the reader. It is pitched more for ministers who wish to ponder their pastoral practice and consider how they might best support those whose marriages break up. With that qualification in mind, I commend this book. It provides a fresh and helpful approach to this subject. Much as I wish Mayo had not had to go through his pain, his writing becomes a poignant way in which God is working for good through him.

Reviewed by Dave Faulkner

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