Re: orthodox christian marriage to a Jew

This is a tough one, Dee Gee. You must have known that the Church would not bless your marriage to a non-Christian. So in a sense, you walked into this with your eyes wide open. Now what? Generally speaking, the practice of the Church is that Orthodox Christians must be married in the Orthodox Church through the Church's sacrament of matrimony. Should an Orthodox Christian marry outside the Church, the Church considers this person as having separated him or herself from full communion with the Church. Consequently, persons who marry outside the Church may not properly receive communion in the Church until their marriage is incorporated into the life of the Church through the sacrament. Such blessings can be arranged with the parish priest "so long as the non-Orthodox partner is a baptized Christian."

The Church takes this position because marriage is a sacrament. From the very beginnings, Christians were admonished NOT to marry non-believers. St Paul instructed the Corinthians, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers..." for "what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?"

A faithful and committed believer in Christ will express that faithfulness when she chooses a marriage partner because of the desire to make a home and raise children "in the Lord." Canon law strictly prohibits marriages between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Christians. In the case of a mixed marriage, the non-Orthodox partner must be a Christian who has been baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity. A marriage cannot take place in the Orthodox Church between an Orthodox Christian and a non-Christian.