Volume 10 (2018): Issue 3 (December 2018)

In this article, the phenomenon of inter-confessional marriages and families is studied in the context of Finnish Orthodoxy. The focus is on the wedding services, religious upbringings and participation in Church life from the perspective of inter-confessional marriages/families: How does the ecumenical reality influence them? Sociologically, the family has a central role in relation to beliefs, religious practices and activities. The religious upbringing of most Orthodox children takes place in a family of two Christian traditions. In the lived reality of the Finnish Orthodox population, the co-existence of two traditions (Orthodox and non-Orthodox) in inter-confessional marriages is not always non-problematic. In dialogue with the Lutheran Church, the Orthodox Church of Finland has aimed to promote harmony and mutual respect for the two traditions in inter-confessional families, as well as to fortify the Orthodox identity of its members.

Due to the fact that the Orthodox Church considers marriage a sacrament, this can only be concluded on the basis of ακρίβεια, when both spouses are orthodox. This case study is looking into the Orthodox Church marriage registers from Sighişoara for marriages of people of other confessions as well as into the baptismal registers, if the non-orthodox were baptized or confirmed (chrismation). From this qualitative case study, one can conclude that, in terms of marriage ceremony and baptism, in the Orthodox Church in Sighişoara/Schäßburg κατ’ οικονομίαν has been dealt with. Children of non-Orthodox parents have been baptized, and non-Orthodox couples have been married without the non-Orthodox being confirmed to Orthodoxy, let alone be (re)baptized.

My research tries to re-examine the issue of mixed marriage from the point of view of the Orthodox Canonical Tradition in the broader context of marital and baptismal theology, through an extensive interpretation of the canons of the Orthodox Church regarding intermarriage according to the historical, social, legal, doctrinal, and canonical context of the promulgation of those canons. The interpretation of the canons regarding mixed marriage will try to emphasize the definition of heretical groups in accordance with the baptismal theology and with the manner of reception of heretics into the Orthodox Church that was developed by every Council. In accordance with the Canons of the Council of Laodicea and of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, I will demonstrate that the Church did not stipulate any immediate conversion of the non-Orthodox spouse and the marriage was not grounded on immediate baptism, but on the willingness of the heterodox person to promise and accept Orthodox teachings for a future baptism. In accordance with the interpretation of Canon 72 of the Council of Trullo, I will emphasize that the canonical prohibition of mixed marriage is not a doctrinal one, otherwise the canon would reject any cohabitation between Orthodox and non-Orthodox, but rather it is a pastoral, canonical and disciplinary measurement in order to suppress the spread of heretical doctrines and teachings.

In the last century, under the influence of the theological personalism (theology of the Person), the Orthodox Church felt the need of a universal and uniform approach to different pastoral questions. Among those we find also the question of inter-confessional (mixed) marriage. This question was approached during the preparation of the Holy and Great Council of Crete. In 2016 the Great Council of the Orthodox Church, finally convened, specified and confessed that inter-confessional marriages are forbidden according to the traditional canon-law (akriveia), but the salvation of the person must be kept in mind and permission could be given in the spirit of pastoral discernment (oikonomia). The history of the Council shows the struggle for finding a balance between canon law and pastoral care, regarding many pastoral issues nowadays, including inter-confessional marriage.

The Mystery of Marriage has always been understood by the Eastern Orthodox as a divinely mandated holy act, in which the grace of the Holy Spirit is communicated to the affianced man and woman, whose natural bond of love becomes thus elevated to the state of representation of the all-encompassing spiritual union between Christ and His Church. According to the patristic tradition, the service of the Mystery of Marriage invariably took place during the Liturgy and within the Eucharistic context. It was through the blessing of the bishop that the espousal love merged with the love of Christ–the true source and power of all human affection, and only then could the two become one single being, one single “flesh”, the body of Christ. The intent of the present article is by no means to cover all aspects of the marriage ritual in the Orthodox Church, as this is a vast topic that begs for further theological research and ample multi-angled analysis, but rather to examine the patristic view on the Mystery of Marriage and on its evolution, and to revisit the exegesis of its liturgical expression.

The question of inter-confessional marriages concerns all the Churches and has become much more urgent because of the great mobility of contemporary man. The Christian wedding is seen as a sacrament of Christ by the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, while the Churches born from the Protestant Reformation do not take this sacramental view, although Luther considers the divine blessing on the institution useful. The advantage of a sacramental perspective lies in the fact that the spouses, by virtue of the sacrament of marriage, become capable of “being married” according to the quality of Christ’s paschal love for his Church. In this way, according to the author, other theological perspectives open up, for example the sequela Christi, the idea of the vocation to Christian marriage, the foundation of the bond of indissolubility-fidelity and the foundation of sexual union-fruitfulness.

Communion of diversities. Interconfessional marriages are understood as communions of diversities. It is the author´s opinion that the first three chapters of the Book of Genesis offer a model of man´s constitutive and simultaneous communion with God and the world. Each person experiences bondings with different theocosmic surroundings or spaces, able to give her/him a special identity. Postparadisiac life is marked by an also simultaneous illegitimate diminishing and enhancing of communion in all directions, included in everybody`s bonding system. The communion of diversities, mixed marriages included, participate in this process, which can be overcome only through life in Christ.

This essay illustrates situations in actual parish life in the diaspora, between juridical presumptions and everyday practice. Juridical grounds are based on canonical law of the Orthodox Church as well as on the Constitution and Acts of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which were formed between the World Wars and in the post-war period, thus being prepared for the multicultural surroundings of Yugoslavia. Multiculturalism is particularly accented in the diaspora. The text describes the juridical procedure and its consequences in parish life and gives a statistical overview of a parish in the diaspora.