with the Rev Kevin Logan, of Christ Church, Accrington

DIVORCE rate lowest for 20 years!

This recent headline good news was spoilt by the small print below. The drop was due to the decrease in numbers married and one, sadly, cancelled out the other.

The wedding aisle is still the most direct route to the solicitor's office. Nearly one in two marriages continues to fail.

Too often we know the heartache behind each statistic: the tears, the bewildered kids, and the confused adults, each wondering how it all went so wrong. Family break-up costs an amazing £30billion each year.

One enterprising hotelier is soon bound to dream up a complete quickie package wedding, reception, bridal suite, mini honeymoon plus friendly on-call lawyer.

'I will' marries 'I will'.

Then the spirit of the age turns one or both into 'Will I eck!'

Submission of the will is the Bible's top tip for married folk, but today's barmy pagan PC army dictates otherwise. Talk instead turns to 'self fulfilment' mixed with the jargon of 'rights'.

Meanwhile, the Inventor of Marriage tells husbands, 'You should love your wife as Christ loved the Church (Ephesians, Ch. 5). And, of course, Christ died for the Church.

The Creator of Marriage tells brides to love, cherish and to obey ( 'Oooh! Seen what he's written? Male chauvinist oink!').

All I know is that in the days before Christianity was 'vanquished' in Britain (quoting our Cardinal and Archbishop), life-long marriage was the norm and divorces the exception.

When Christianity guided homes, men promised to die for their wives who had not the slightest problem about cherishing and obeying.

One of these days, we might return to our Christian senses and vanquish the paganism of political correctness that interprets 'I Will' as 'My Will'.