Marriage in The Eastern Orthodox Church

Marriage In The Eastern Orthodox Church

The Sacrament or, more properly, Sacred Mystery of Marriage does not unite a man and a woman. Rather, it is the Church's recognition of a union that God has already begun to work in their lives. As long as the union remains within the reality of this world, it will be subject to sin, pain, and death. But, through the Sacred Mystery, the union enters at the same time into a new reality: that of God's Kingdom. In Christ, marriage is restored to its initial perfection and in the sacrament, this union is made open to the possibility of what God intended marriage to be from the beginning: an eternal life of joy in union with Him.

Thus, marriage goes beyond a legal contract. There is no exchange of vows - the two have freely and coequally committed to one another and consented to God's presence in their union. There is no phrase "'til death do us part". If marriage is brought into the Kingdom of God, death, as a separation, is powerless over it. Christ has destroyed death by His Cross and Resurrection; therefore, the union of man and woman in Christ is eternal.

Read more about Marriage In The Eastern Orthodox Church:  The Exchange of The Rings, The Procession, Declaration of Intent and Lighting of Candles, The Crowning, The Epistle, The Gospel, The Common Cup and The Dance of Isaiah, Removal of The Crowns, The Greeting of The Couple, Divorce

Famous quotes containing the words marriage, eastern, orthodox and/or church:

    “Thrift, thrift, Horatio, the funeral baked meats
    Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “The Eastern steamboat passed us with music and a cheer, as if they were going to a ball, when they might be going to—Davy’s locker.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “The gloomy theology of the orthodox—the Calvinists—I do not, I cannot believe. Many of the notions—nay, most of the notions—which orthodox people have of the divinity of the Bible, I disbelieve. I am so nearly infidel in all my views, that too, in spite of my wishes, that none but the most liberal doctrines can command my assent.”
    —Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)

    “The Church welcomes technological progress and receives it with love, for it is an indubitable fact that technological progress comes from God and, therefore, can and must lead to Him.”
    —Pius XII [Eugenio Pacelli] (1876–1958)