Public space? Closure? This is all so secular? Who gave you a spirit of fear? Who gave you the need to “seek” closure? The ENEMY. Our relationships with one another should never be closed, but open to pray, one unto another. I pray for the men I have parted with and even the father of my children. I do not fear them, despise them, or wish them ill will. I love them as Christ loves me.

Be elevated in your faith and your way of thinking. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, but it is His desire for us to line ourselves up with Him and seek counsel on what to say with wisdom and on each and every step we are to make in our lives.

I also have no idea where you got the 90% failure rate of friendships. I would say it’s more around 50% or less, if there is some time taken at the beginning to start the healing process separately.

I would suggest you try and make a clean break and completely cut contact (as much as you can) for 1-2 months. This means personal contact between the two of you. You might want to avoid going to church or home group during this time too, but this isn’t always necessary, especially if you civily agree between the two of you that it is not necessary - you will just be civil in those situations.

After the agreed time get together, in a public space and give yourselves some closure. There might be a few questions that you might want answered, and closure is good for peace of mind. Then see if you can work on friendship from that point. If you had been together for a long time and the break up wasn’t messy they CAN become a friend. It might be a bit tricky at first, but you will adjust to them being a friend if that is something you both want. In my personal experience ALL the instances where the for desire friendship has been mutual, friendship has been achieved (it takes time! So give yourselves space and time)