ISSUES OF DIVORCE IN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
To petition for Ecclesiastical Divorce and attend the Spiritual Court should
be considered as an extension of the Sacrament of Holy Confession. The petitioning
priest and the members of the Spiritual Court are reminded of the sensitive
and confidential nature of this process. Its purpose is neither to justify
nor condemn anyone, but rather to facilitate the process of healing and
reconciliation to the Body of Christ. Your help is needed in explaining
that this is a pastoral and healing ministry, rather than a legalistic formality.
(Procedures of Metropolis of Chicago, September 2004)
Marriage, Divorce, and Mixed Marriages
Marriage is one of the sacraments of the Orthodox Church. Orthodox Christians
who marry must marry in the Church in order to be in sacramental communion
with the Church. According to the Church canons, an Orthodox who marries
outside the Church may not receive Holy Communion and may not serve as a
sponsor, i.e. a Godparent at a Baptism, or as a sponsor at a Wedding. Certain
marriages are prohibited by canon law, such as a marriage between fist and
second cousins, or between a Godparent and a Godchild. The fist marriage
of a man and a woman is honored by the Church with a richly symbolic service
that eloquently speaks to everyone regarding the married state. The form
of the service calls upon God to unite the couple through the prayer of
the priest or bishop officiating.
The church will permit up to, but not more than, three marriages for any
Orthodox Christian. If both partners are entering a second or third marriage,
another form of the marriage ceremony is conducted, much more subdued and
penitential in character. Marriages end either through the death of one
of the partners or through ecclesiastical recognition of divorce. The Church
grants "ecclesiastical divorces" on the basis of the exception
given by Christ to his general prohibition of the practice. The Church has
frequently deplored the rise of divorce and generally sees divorce as a
tragic failure. Yet, the Orthodox Church also recognizes that sometimes
the spiritual well-being of Christians caught in a broken and essentially
nonexistent marriage justifies a divorce, with the right of one or both
of the partners to remarry. Each parish priest is required to do all he
can to help couples resolve their differences. If they cannot, and they
obtain a civil divorce, they may apply for an ecclesiastical divorce in
some jurisdictions of the Orthodox Church. In others, the judgment is left
to the parish priest when and if a civilly divorced person seeks to remarry.
Those Orthodox jurisdictions which issue ecclesiastical divorces require
a thorough evaluation of the situation, and the appearance of the civilly
divorced couple before a local ecclesiastical court, where another investigation
is made. Only after an ecclesiastical divorce is issued by the presiding
bishop can they apply for an ecclesiastical license to remarry.
Though the Church would prefer that all Orthodox Christians would marry
Orthodox Christians, it does not insist on it in practice. Out of its concern
for the spiritual welfare of members who wish to marry a non-Orthodox Christian,
the Church will conduct a "mixed marriage." For this purpose,
a "non-Orthodox Christian" is a member of the Roman Catholic Church,
or one of the many Protestant Churches which believe in and baptize in the
name of the Holy Trinity. This means that such mixed marriages may be performed
in the Orthodox Church. However, the Orthodox Church does not perform marriages
between Orthodox Christians and persons belonging to other religions, such
as Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, or any sectarian and cult group,
such as Christian Science, Mormonism, or the followers of Rev. Moon.
http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article7101.asp
DIVORCE
The parish priest must exert every effort to reconcile the couple and avert
a divorce. However, should he fail to bring about a reconciliation, after
a civil divorce has been obtained, he will transmit the petition of the
party seeking the ecclesiastical divorce, together with the decree of the
civil divorce, to the Spiritual Court of the Diocese. The petition must
include the names and surnames of the husband and wife, the wife's surname
prior to marriage, their addresses, the name of the priest who performed
the wedding, and the date and place of the wedding. The petitioner must
be a member in good standing with the parish through which he or she is
petitioning for divorce. Orthodox Christians of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese
who have obtained a civil divorce but not an eccle¬siastical divorce
may not participate in any sacra¬ments of the Church or serve on the
Parish Council, Diocesan Council or Archdiocesan Council until they have
been granted a divorce by the Church.
http://www.goarch.org/en/resources/pastoral/instructions.asp
MARRIAGE: AN ORTHODOX PERSPECTIVE
By John Meyendorff
St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1975
XII. Divorce (p.54)
The Roman Catholic traditional view, canonical regulations on divorce and
remarriage are based on two presuppostions. 1) Marriage is a legal contract,
and for Christians is legally indissoluble. 2) The marriage contract concerns
only earthly life and therefore, is legally dissolved by the death of one
partner.
The Orthodox approach starts from different presuppositions. 1) Marriage
is a sacrament conferred upon the partners in the Body of the Church through
the priest’s blessing. As any sacrament, marriage pertains to the
eternal life in the Kingdom of God and therefore, is not dissolved by the
death of one partner. An eternal bond is created between them—“it
is given to them” (Matthew 19:11). 2) As sacrament, marriage is not
a magical act, but a gift of grace. The partners, being humans, may have
made a mistake in soliciting the grace of marriage when they were not ready
for it; or they may prove to be unable to make this grace grow to maturity.
In those cases, the Church may admit the fact that the grace was not “received,”
tolerate separation and allow remarriage. But, of course, she never encourages
any remarriage—we have seen that even in the case of widowers—because
of the eternal character of the marriage bond; but only tolerates it when,
in concrete cases, it appears as the best solution for a given individual.
Christ repeatedly condemned divorce (Mt. 19:8-9; 5:31-32; Mk. 10:2-9; Lk.
16;18). The indissolubility of marriage does not imply the total suppression
of human freedom. Freedom implies the possibility of sin, as well as its
consequences; ultimately, sin can destroy marriage. Nowhere does the New
Testament explicitly condone remarriage after divorce. St. Paul, who discourages
but permits remarriage of widowers, is very negative concerning the remarriage
of divorcees: “To the married I give charge, not I but the Lord, that
the wife should not separate from her husband—but if she does, let
her remain single or else be reconciled to her husband—and that the
husband should not divorce his wife” (1Cor. 6:10-11).
In the Christian Empire under Constantine, Theodosius, Justinian and others,
laws defined the various legal grounds and conditions on which divorce and
remarriage were permissible. It is sufficient to say that they were relatively
lenient. However, no Father of the Church ever denounced these imperial
laws as contrary to Christianity. St. Epiphanius of Cyprus (d403) says,
“He who cannot keep continence after the death of his first wife,
or who has separated from his wife for a valid motive, as fornication, adultery,
or another misdeed, if he takes another wife, or if the wife takes another
husband, the divine word does not condemn him nor exclude him from the Church
or the life; but she tolerates it rather on account of his weakness”
(Against Heresies).
However, the Church always remained faithful to the New Testament ideal.
Only the first and unique marriage was blessed in Church during the Eucharist.
As seen above, second and third marriages, after widowhood, were concluded
at a civil ceremony only, and implied a penance of one to five years of
excommunication. After this period of penance, the couple was again considered
as full members of the Church. A more prolonged penance was required for
married divorcees (see canon 87 of Sixth Ecum. Council). The classification
of the marrying divorcees among the adulterers—in strict conformity
with the Gospel text—implied that they spent sufficient time standing
in Church not among the faithful, but at the doorway, with the “weepers,”
the “hearers” (i.e., those who listened to Scripture, but were
not admitted to the sacraments), and the “prostrators” (i.e.,
those who held, during certain parts of the service, a prostrated position,
instead of sitting or standing).
The Church, therefore, neither “recongized” divorce, nor “gave”
it. Divorce was considered as a grave sin; but the Church never failed in
giving to sinners a “new chance,” and was ready to readmit them
if they repented. Only after the tenth century, when it received from the
emperors the legal monopoly of registering and validating all marriages,
was the Church obliged to “issue divorces.” It did it generally
in conformity with civil legislation of the Roman Empire, and later with
that of the various countries in which it developed. But this new situation
greatly obliterated in the consciousness of the marriage. Both the Church
marriage and the “Church divorce” appeared as a mere formality
giving external legality to acts which were generally quite illegitimate
from the Christian point of view.
Practically, and in full conformity with Scripture and Church tradition,
I would suggest that our Church authorities stop “giving divorces”
(since they are secured by civil courts), and rather on the basis of recognition,
based upon the civil divorce, that marriage does not in fact exist, issue
“permissions to remarry.” Of course, in each particular case
pastoral counseling and investigation should make sure that reconciliation
is impossible; and the “permission to remarry” should entail
at least some forms of penance (in conformity with each individual case)
and give the right to a Church blessing according to the rite of “second
marriage.”
ORTHODOX CANON LAW
Manual by Dr. Lewis Patsavos (p.135-
According to Orthodox teaching, one of the essential characteristics of
marriage is its indissolubility. Consequently, a legitimate marriage is
dissolved only through death, or through an event which revokes the ecclesiastical
significance of marriage, refutes its religious and moral foundation, and
is in other words religious or moral death.
Divorce caused by religious or moral death occurs by itself when the basis
of marriage ceases to function and the purpose of the marital bond is therefore
frustrated. In such an instance, it is not the competent authority which
dissolves the marriage. Rather, this authority only formally certifies that
the legitimate marriage has lost its basis and has dissolved itself.
Marriage is as old an institution as the human race itself. Consequently,
the legal basis for both marriage and divorce was established long before
Christianity itself. In ancient Roman society the dissolution of a marriage
was left up to the free consent of the spouses. Both spouses decided by
mutual consent to dissolve their marriage, or else one of the spouses sent
a libel (formal written declaration) to the other, and this libel was sufficient
for the marriage to be considered dissolved. When, however, relations between
Church and State had been reconciled, the Church accorded to the institution
of marriage the fitting place it deserves. Consequently, legislation was
issued guaranteeing the sanctity of marriage. The first step in this direction
was the abolition of divorce by mutual consent. It took many centuries,
however, before the Church was able to thoroughly influence the state to
take the appropriate measures abolishing this type of divorce. It wasn’t
until the 9th century, the same century that the ecclesiastical wedding
ceremony was totally recognized by the state as having a legal character,
that canonical grounds for divorce were established by the competent ecclesiastical
authority.