Divorcees Anonymous

When the collection plate came around, lonely Verna Burke dropped in a note along with her contribution: Was there any kind of club or organization in the church for divorced people? There wasn't, so the Rev. Paul Davie of Portland's Piedmont Presbyterian Church went to work founding one, with 40-year-old divorcee Burke and four others from his congregation as a nucleus. After it was publicized through an interview with Mrs. Burke in the Portland Oregonian, some 200 calls swamped the church. People wanted to know if there were restrictions as to faith (no), place of residence (no), number of divorces (no).

For their first public meeting, Pastor Davie and his committee expected 60 people, eventually had to accommodate 160, about 30 of them men. Some had come from as far as 30 miles away. Last week the executive committee of the new club met to plan its first dance. With the tentative name of TPM (Tuesday evening), the club plans to meet the third Tuesday of every month and to hold some kind of social activity between regular meetings. Says 45-year-old Preacher Davie: "The way they responded to the church relationship is wonderful and surprising. People resist so often when you try to give them a spiritual background--then suddenly here are 160 of them." The club's purpose: to provide a happy alternative to "getting a date or getting married the quick way by being barflies."

A similar church group, called Divorcees Anonymous, has been at work in Los Angeles for five years. Affiliated with Hollywood's First Presbyterian Church, the organization has a committee of 25, including ministers, doctors, psychologists and laymen, who make themselves available at all times to help any of their 200-odd fellow members. But it is the church itself that seems to be the most help. "I was touched by the look of forlornness on these people," said Hollywood Presbyterian's Pastor Raymond I. Lindquist. "There's no glamour about them, just a climate of failure. You could call it a parade into darkness. But as soon as they get religion to fit into their needs, you see them brightening up. Suddenly, there's a twinge of hope."

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