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Marriage

183 bytes added, 18:48, March 20, 2013
Divorce
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{{spirituality}}
'''Marriage''' (also '''matrimony''') is one of the seven [[holy mysteries]] or [[sacraments]] in the Orthodox Church, as well as many other [[Christian]] traditions. It serves to unite a woman and a man in eternal union before God with the purpose of following Christ and His [[Gospel]] and raising up a faithful, holy [[family]] through their holy union. It is referred to extensively in both the [[Old Testament|Old]] and [[New Testament]]s. Christ declared the essential indissolvibility of marriage in the [[Gospels|Gospel]].
==Holy Matrimony==
Married life, no less than monastic life, is a special vocation, requiring a particular gift or [[charisma]] from the [[Holy Spirit]], a gift bestowed in the sacrament of Holy Matrimony. The same Trinitarian mystery of unity in diversity applies to the doctrine of marriage as it does to the Church. The family created by this sacrament is a small church.
The Orthodox Church teaches that man is made in the image of the [[Trinity]], and he is not intended by God to live alone, but in a family, except in special cases. And just as God blessed the first family, commanding [[Adam and Eve]] to be fruitful and multiply, so the Church now gives its blessing to the union of man and woman. The sacrament mystery of Christian marriage, in the Church, gives a man and a woman the possibility to become one spirit and one flesh in a way which no human love can provide by itself. The Holy Spirit is given so that what has begun on earth is fulfilled and continues most perfectly in the Kingdom of God.
==Marriage service==
{{Services}}
==Mixed marriage ==
The Christian sacrament mystery of marriage can only be available to those who belong to the Church; that is, only for baptized i.e., to communicants. Dispensation may be sought from one's diocesan bishop in cases on mixed marriages between an Orthodox Christian and a Christian of a non-Orthodox but Trinitarian church (e.g., Roman Catholic, Lutheran, etc.) but the wedding must take place in the Orthodox church.
==Widows and widowers==
==Divorce==
Orthodoxy regards the marriage bond as indissoluble, and it condemns the breakdown of marriage as a sin and an evil. The Orthodox Church does permits permit remarriage after divorce and remarriagein some cases, as an exception, a necessary concession to human sin. While condemning sin, the Church desires to help the sinners and to allow them a another chance, with an act of ''[[oikonomia]]'' . When a marriage has entirely ceased to be a reality, the Orthodox Church faces the reality with ''[[philanthropia]]'' (loving kindness).
==Second marriage==
==Family Life==
* [http://www.beliefnet.com/story/161/story_16180_1.html Raising Children With Christ, Compassion, and Commitment] by Fr. [[Peter Gillquist|Peter E. Gillquist ]] (''Again Magazine'' and ''Beliefnet'') 
==See also==
*[[Pastoral Guidelines#Weddings|Pastoral Guidelines for Weddings]]
==Further reading==
[[Category:Sacraments]]
[[el:Γάμος]]
[[fr:Mariage]]
[[mk:Брак]]
[[ro:Căsătorie]]
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