The Mystery of Healing: Oil, Anointing, and the Unity of the Local Church
The Holy Sacraments of Baptism, Chrismation and Holy Communion
The Seven Sacraments of the Greek Orthodox Church
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Diocese of the West
The Orthodox Church in America
September
7, 1991
St. John, Novgorod Wonderworker
No. 306
Dear
Father N. N.,
The
Lord's blessings be upon you!
(...)
I will sum up the normal steps we take in petitioning and granting blessings
for second marriages. Please refer to it in the future. (...) I'm sure
you'll agree that our procedures are more in line with Orthodox theology
as you understand it than some other procedures followed in the past and
elsewhere. You may wish to keep this handy for any future cases which
may come into your pastoral care.
The
procedures are based on these premises:
- In
an Orthodox marriage, God Himself is the Agent of the marriage: "What
GOD hath joined together, let no man put asunder."
- The
Orthodox person who effects a divorce sins thereby, except in the cases
outlined in the Scriptures and Canons, for example, in a case of adultery,
or the taking of monastic vows by husband and wife when the husband
is elected to the episcopate.
- In
an Orthodox marriage, it is only the husband or wife who are agents
of a divorce, and the Church does not divorce anyone. (The "Church
divorces" of the past, those accomplished in societies where the
(state)Church performed such functions of the state as marriage registry
because the civil law provided for that, make no sense at all where
the Church is free of such civil obligations, and the priest does not
therefore have to act as a county clerk or other bureaucratic functionary
of the state.)
- THE
FIRST, MAIN, AND THE PRIMARY PURPOSE OF MARRIAGE IS THE SALVATION OF
THE PERSONS BEING MARRIED. And the basis of a second marriage, whether
of a divorced person or a widowed one, is the same, but it is based
on the Apostolic injunction, "Better to marry than to burn."
PROCEDURES:
Based
on the above premises:
The
person coming to the parish priest petitioning for the blessing of a second
marriage must attest to the following:
- He
or she has exhausted, by his or her own persistent and untiring efforts,
all means of reconciliation with the spouse God gave him or her, and
that spouse has, in spite of his or her protestations and representations
and efforts at reconciliation, sued for divorce and obtained it.
- He
or she has repented of the sin of divorce, and this was an involuntary
sin, except in cases having a scriptural or canonical basis, where it
may be, but not necessarily, a voluntary sin, based on a refusal to
forgive.
- He
or she has lived some time in this divorced state and now fears for
his or her own salvation if he or she does not marry the person whom
he or she now intends to marry.
- The
Priest gives counsel to the person coming for a divorce, and insures
that the above is, in fact, the case, as far as he can determine. He
then advises the petitioner to put a petition in writing, petitioning
for a second marriage and attesting to the above. He obtains a copy
of the divorce decree.
- If
the Priest is in agreement with the petitioner, he then sends me his
own petition, petitioning to be blessed to marry the petitioner to his
or her intended. He includes in the petition his own estimation of the
facts of the case, a clear statement that the petitioner has, indeed,
repented, and has undergone the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion.
He includes in his petition a copy of the petitioner's petition and
divorce decree, but NO DIOCESAN FEES.
I
hope this is all relatively clear, Father N. Perhaps it's providential
that this case has arisen right now: it will clarify future courses of
action for you in similar cases which are bound to arise in an age when
Americans, even Orthodox Americans, believe everyone is entitled to an
ideal marriage, or at least one which lives up to "expectations."
Sending
a blessing and assuring you prayer
With
love in Christ
+Bishop
TIKHON
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