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As divorce centres open across the UK designed to simplify the ending of marriages, Roy Jenkins looks at how divorce is understood by those from Christian communities.

30 minutes

Last on

Thu 2 Jul 2015 05:30

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With many couples preparing to say 鈥淚 do鈥 this summer - everywhere from stately homes to tiny chapels -聽 it might seem unkind to be asking聽 what might happen if聽 things fall apart and they decide 鈥淚 don鈥檛, any more.

By the end of this year, the government will have opened up divorce centres across England and Wales, designed to simplify the handling of more than 100,000 petitions each year, the vast majority of them uncontested.

Former home office minister Ann Widdecombe is reported as comparing it to discarding an old carrier bag, but for every commentator who sees the move as a further erosion of marriage, there鈥檚 another to welcome it as a streamlining which will help people at a particularly stressful time.聽聽聽

Joining Roy to explore the issue and consider how divorce is understood among those within the Christian church is retired barrister Barbara Caulfield, a divorced Catholic who has since re-married; Jean Tucker, a former nurse and domiciliary midwife, and who for many years had a private practice as a relationship counsellor and sex therapist; Canon Terence Carr, a Roman Catholic parish priest of Prestatyn who looks after marriage matters as Judicial Vicar for the Wrexham diocese; and Katharine Hill, former solicitor and now UK Director at Care for the Family, a national charity based in Wales which aims to strengthen family life and help during difficult times

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  • Sun 28 Jun 2015 09:03
  • Thu 2 Jul 2015 05:30

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