The Divorced Christian and the Love of God by Paula Clifford (Triangle SPCK, £3.95).
ALTHOUGH Paula Clifford mentions the pastoral problems heightened by divergent teaching and practice within the Established Anglican church, I am not qualified to comment except to say that the current developments in psychology seem to strengthen the Catholic case for recognising nonachieved "annullable" marriages.
Her book is a living example of what she preaches, a consoling prayer shared with fellow sufferers, a practical compendium of scriptural consolation, and a prophetic comment on the current Anglican attitude to divorce and remarriages, warts and all. A committed Christian, she tells how with Christ, she courageously rebuilt a wholeness into her one parent home life, and fought back into a position of positive renewed evangelism within and beyond her Anglican parish. She asks "ordinary Christians to set aside their feelings on marriage breakdown however strong", for fear of being thought to counterance divorce itself, and reach out to help relieve their divorced Christian neighbour from their despair.
As a divorced Catholic I can only admire the balance of tact, understanding, and fearless objective comment on such matters as: the uncomfortable "paradox that when it comes to admitting failure, life may be easier among non-Christian friends than among other Christians." Or the minority, sometimes "leading", church members, self-righteously exposing only their own lack of Christian charity. Or how to persuade the happily married that divorce is never easy; always a regretable last resort: "a pain which other Christians are often unable or unwilling to help alleviate". Explaining why divorced Christians (clergymen especially) prove the most understanding healers.
Cecilia Hull