Notes from David Atkinson, To Have and to Hold: The
Marriage Covenant and the Discipline of Divorce (St James’s Place, London:
Collins, 1979), a study “commissioned by the Latimer House Council to be a
contribution to the current debate in the Church of England on the remarriage
of divorced persons in church” (author’s note) at a time that the Church of
England still banned remarriage after divorce, when a former partner was still
living.
“Behind today’s pastoral questions lies a whole history of
debate. The three central areas of difference are
(a) Alternative views about the nature of marriage. All are
agreed that God’s will for marriage is that marriage ‘is in its nature a union
permanent and lifelong, for better for worse, till death them do part, of one
man with one woman, to the exclusion of all others on either side...’ [Canon B
30] The debate concerns whether a valid marriage once entered into on these
terms can ever be broken in God’s sight. Is marriage ‘indissoluble’ in fact?
(b) Alternative views about divorce. All are agreed that divorce is a grievous departure from God’s will for marriage. But if a marriage cannot in fact be dissolved in God’s eyes, whatever the courts of the land may declare, how is the Church to view divorcees? If, however, marriage can in some circumstances be dissolved, what – before God – counts as marriage breakdown?
(c) Alternative views about the function of the Church. All are agreed that the Church shall witness to God’s truth both of his will for the permanence of marriage, and of the Gospel of grace and forgiveness. The difficulties come in trying to maintain the proper balance between its prophetic and pastoral responsibilities in its liturgical and disciplinary practice, against the background of differing views of ministry and sacraments.” (p. 11, emphasis added)
I have written up further notes from chapter 2 (historical sketch), chapter 3 (marriage as covenant), chapter 4 (background and biblical evidence), chapter 5 here (principles for a Christian view of divorce) and here (applications of these principles), and chapter 6 (pastoral questions).
