Are divorced and remarried couples to be considered cut off from the Church? This book tries to give a fresh answer to an old question, not so much from a legalistic point of view as from the human dimension of compassion and understanding. The author offers some possible ways out in extreme cases ways which are in keeping with the tradition of both the Eastern and Western Churches such as the principle of oikonomia (economy) and epikeia and above all the mercy of God made visible in Christ who came not to condemn but to write this book was the statement made by the Synod of Bishop in 1980 expressing concern for the divorced and remarried.