Complete List of Prohibited Marriages in the Orthodox Church
The
following relationships are among those prohibited by the canonical tradition
of the Orthodox Church from entering into marriage:
Blood Relationships
a. Ascending Relatives
1.
Parents
2.
Grandparents
3.
Great-Grandparents
b. Descending Relatives
1.
Children
2.
Grandchildren
3.
Great-Grandchildren
Marriages
between Ascending and Descending Blood Relatives are prohibited.
Collateral Relatives
1.
Brothers and Sisters
2. Direct
Uncles and Aunts
3.
Nephews and Nieces
4. First
Cousins
5. Second
Uncles and Aunts
6. Second
Nephews and Nieces
7. Second
Cousins
Relationships By Marriage
a. Marriages between two kindred by affinity
in which the one kindred furnishes but one party lineally.
For example:
1. Father
and Step-Daughter
2. Mother
and Step-Son
3. Grandfather
and Step-Granddaughter
4.
Grandmother and Step-Grandson
5.
Great-Grandfather and Step-Great-Granddaughter
6.
Great-Grandmother and Step-Great-Grandson
7.
Great-Great-Grandfather and Step-Great-Great-Granddaughter
8.
Great-Great-Grandmother and Step-Great-Great-Grandson
b. Marriages between two kindred by affinity
in which the one kindred furnishes two parties lineally.
For
example:
1. Father
and Son with a Mother and Daughter
2. Father
and Son with a Grandmother and Granddaughter
3. Father
and Son with a Great-Grandmother and Great-Granddaughter
4. Father
and Son with a Great-Great-Grandmother and Great-Great-Granddaughter
5. Father
and Son with Two Sisters
6. Father
and Son with a First-Aunt and Niece
7. Father
and Son with a Great-Aunt and Niece
8. Father
and Son with Two First Cousins
9. Father
and Son with Two Second Cousins
The same
above applies with Mothers and Daughters, Fathers and Daughters, Mothers and
Sons marrying those mentioned. The same goes for Grandparents and
Great-Grandparents. There must be six degrees of separation.
c. Marriages between two kindred by amity in
which the one kindred furnishes but one party laterally.
For
example:
1. A Man
and his Wife's Sister after her death.
2. A Man
and his Wife's First-Aunt and Niece after her death.
3. A Man
and his Wife's Grand-Aunt and Niece after her death.
4. A Man
and his Wife's First Cousin after her death.
5. A Man
and his Wife's Second-Aunt and Niece after her death.
6. A Man
and his Wife's Grand-Aunt and her Niece's Daughter after her death.
7. A Man
and his Wife's Second Cousin after her death.
8. A Man
and his Wife's Granddaughter of her Cousin after her death.
The same
applies with a woman and the relatives of her husband after his death. There
must be six degrees of separation.
d. Marriages between two kindred by affinity
in which one kindred furnishes two parties collaterally.
For
example:
1. Two
Brothers and Two Sisters
2. Two
Brothers with a Proximate Aunt and Niece
3. Two
brothers and Two First Cousins
4. Two
Brothers with a Grand-Aunt and Niece
5. Two
Brothers with a Second Aunt and Niece
6. Uncle
and Nephew with a Mother and Daughter
7. Two
Proximate Uncles with Two Proximate Nieces
8. Two
Proximate Nephews with Two Proximate Aunts
9. Two
First Cousins with a Great Grandmother and Great Granddaughter
10. A Man
may not marry the wife of his Father or Grandfather if they have more than one
wife.
11. A Man
with his Mother-In-Law
12. A Man
with the Wife of his Brother after he died.
13. A Man
with the Wife of his Uncle after he died.
14. A Man
with the Daughter of his Mother-In-Law by another man.
15. A Man
with the Sister-In-Law of his Son, or of his Grandson, or of his Great-Grandson.
16. A Man
with his own stepdaughter, i.e. a daughter, or a granddaughter, or a
great-granddaughter of the wife whom he has divorced and who had them by
another man either before he took her to wife, or after he married her.
There
must be six degrees of separation.
Relationships Involving Three Lineages
For
example:
1. A
Step-Father with the Wife of his Step-Son after he died.
2. A
Step-Mother with the Husband of her Step-Daughter after she died.
3. One
and the same Man may not marry the Sister and the Stepdaughter of his Wife's
Brother.
4. One
and the same man may not marry a proximate niece and the wife of her proximate
uncle.
5. A
Step-Father may not marry the Step-Daughter of his own Step-Daughter.
6. A
Wife’s Brother may not marry the woman who was a Second Wife of the Husband of
his Sister, that is to say, of his Brother-In-Law, after the death of his
Sister.
7. A
Father and his Son may not marry a Husband’s Sister and a Sister-In-Law.
8. Two
Brothers may not marry a Step-Mother and a Step-Daughter.
9. Two
Brothers may not marry a Mother-In-Law and a Sister-In-Law.
All
marriages that exceed the third degree, and are of the fourth, or of the fifth,
or of the sixth degree, and so on, in respect thereof are allowable.
Relationships Due To Holy Baptism
St.
Nikodemos the Hagiorite writes:
"This relationship results when one
sponsors a child at the ceremony of Holy Baptism. For the man who undertakes
this sponsorship is making the child in question his spiritual son or daughter,
as the case may be; accordingly, he in fact becomes a closer and more intimate
relative and father of the child than is its carnal father, because just as
much as the spirit is higher than the body the relationship of the spirit is higher
than that of the flesh."
For
example:
1. A
Godfather (or his Carnal Son) may not marry his Goddaughter, i.e., any girl
that he has baptized.
2. A
Godfather (or his carnal Son) may not marry the Mother or Daughter of his
Godchild.
3. None
of the Godfather's Children may marry the Mother of their Father's Godchild
4. Nor
may any Child marry a Daughter of his Father's Goddaughter.
5. If
perchance Two Children, one male and the other female, happen to be baptized by
one and the same Godfather, they may not marry each other.
6. A Man
may not marry the Widow of his Spiritual Brother.
7. If the
Husband baptizes One Child, and his Wife another, these Children may not
intermarry.
8. A
Son-In-Law may not marry the Goddaughter of his Father-In-Law.
Relationships By Adoption
1.
Adopting Parents with Adopted Children
2.
Adopted Brother with a Sister or Step-Sister from Adopting Parents
3.
Adopted Sister with a Brother or Step-Brother from Adopting Parents
4.
Adopted Child with a Relative of the Adopting Parents
There
must be four degrees of separation.
Marriage and Clergy
1.
Deacons and Presbyters may marry before ordination, but if their spouse dies or
if there is a divorce they are prohibited from any further marriage, unless
they leave the priesthood.
2.
Bishops are not to marry under any condition.
Remarriage
Remarriage
is forbidden in the Orthodox Church, yet out of condescension to the weaknesses
of humanity the Orthodox Church does allow remarriage under certain conditions.
1. If a
layperson remarries under the lawful conditions of the Church, they are only
allowed to be remarried up to two times beyond the first marriage. Fourth
marriages are prohibited to all under any condition.
Inter-Christian and Inter-Religious Marriages
Canonical
and theological reasons preclude the Orthodox Church from performing the
Sacrament of Marriage for couples where one partner is Orthodox and the other
partner is a non-Christian. As such, Orthodox Christians choosing to enter such
marriages fall out of good standing with the Church and are unable to actively
participate in the life of the Church. While this stance may seem confusing and
rigid, it is guided by the Orthodox Church's love and concern for its member's
religious and spiritual well-being.
If one of
the marriage partners (either the groom or the bride) is not an Orthodox
Christian:
a. The
non-Orthodox partner shall be a Christian who was Baptized with water in the
name of the Holy Trinity in a denomination that expresses a belief in the Holy
Trinity.
b. The
non-Orthodox partner shall be willing to have any children issuing from the
marriage Baptized in the Orthodox Church as well as raised and nurtured in accordance
with the Orthodox faith.
c. The
non-Orthodox partner shall not be a member of the following churches or
religions (these marriages are prohibited in the Eastern Orthodox Church):
(1)
Assembly of God (2) Buddhism (i.e., a Buddhist) (3) Christian Scientist (4)
Disciples of Christ (5) Members of any Far Eastern Religion (6) Hinduism (i.e.,
a Hindu) (7) Islam (i.e., Muslims) (8) Jehovah's Witness (9) Judaism (i.e., a
Jew) (10) Mennonite (11) Mormon (also called "Latter Day Saints) (12) Any
Non-Christian (13) Pentecostal (14) Quaker (15) Salvation Army (16) Seventh Day
Adventist (17) Spiritualist (18) Swedenborgian (19) Unitarian (20) Cults or New
Age movements.
Adelphopoiesis or Adopted Brotherhood
St.
Nikodemos the Hagiorite writes:
"Adoption imitates nature, but nature
never generates a brother, but only a son. So adoption, as imitating nature,
cannot make a brother. Hence such a thing as making a brother by adoption not
only is not practicable or to be considered to constitute an obstacle to
marriage among themselves of such allegedly adopted brothers, but neither ought
it to be projected at all. For it ought to be rejected from the Church of
Christ, on the ground that it is the cause of many evils and of the perdition
of souls to most of them, and merely affords matter for some persons to fulfill
their carnal desires and to enjoy sensual pleasures, as countless examples of
actual experience have shown at various times and in various places."
St.
Nikodemos warns here of the dangers of Adopted or Blood Brotherhood rituals
turning into homosexual relationships. This applies to any form of homosexual
relationship from becoming a marriage as well, since a homosexual marriage
(between two men or two women) was unthinkable to the Fathers of the Church who
composed the canonical prohibitions of marriage.
Betrothal, or Engagement
This
refers to an engaged couple who have been formally Betrothed in a church by a
priest. Today betrothals tend to be informal until the wedding day, when a
Betrothal ceremony is combined with the Wedding Service.
1. Laymen
are forbidden to marry a cousin or any other person related to their fiancée
after she has died while they were engaged.
Monastics
1.
Monastics are forbidden to marry under any circumstance.
Bigamy and Polygamy
1. Bigamy
and Polygamy are forbidden in the Orthodox Church.
Unlawful Marriages Are The Cause of Many
Evils
By St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite
Christian
brethren, I beg of you, for the love of God, not to importune the holy bishops
often by use of external means, to allow you to contract such unlawful
marriages when they do not like to do so. For the aforesaid St. Sisinnius
asserts that it is on account of these violations of the law that earthquakes,
plagues, famines, wars, droughts, and other manifestations of divine wrath
befall us; and that all those who want to have such marriages are prompted not
impassively, but either by a desire of glory or of wealth or of nobility or of
beauty or of some other passion. That is why such persons never make any
headway in life, but, on the contrary, the wrath of God pervades their houses
and annihilates them, since from the beginning they do not acquire the blessing
of their spiritual mother the holy Church, but instead her curse, which roots
out the foundations of their houses, as Sirach says: “but the curse of the
mother roots out foundations” (3:9). Blessed are in truth those prelates who
can be persuaded neither by gifts nor by threats and human fear to permit such
unlawful marriages. All those persons, in fact, who suffer damage, or infamy
and wounds, for keeping the divine laws and Canons are indeed Confessors and
will be deemed to be really worthy of the crowns of martyrs.
Final Note: The Canons are guides in
the pastoral ministry of the Church for the spiritual maturation of the
faithful, to help the members of the Church be healed of their weaknesses and
passions and elevate them spiritually through her sanctifying grace. It is in
this light that the above marital prohibitions should be viewed. There may be
some minor differences among the various Orthodox jurisdictions in how they are
applied, and sometimes even how Bishops may choose to apply them. For example,
certain jurisdictions may not allow intermarriage with certain non-Orthodox
Christians that another jurisdiction may allow, and vice versa. Sometimes, in
extreme and unique situations, these canonical prohibitions can be allowed by
economia, or leniency, as has been the case historically. For example, in
isolated villages the prohibitions on relatives marrying have been slightly
reduced a bit, since most in the surrounding villages were related in one way
or another. Or one can even cite how after World War I, certain Serbian clergy
were allowed to remarry since many of their spouses had died or were killed
prematurely, and they were forced to raise their children alone, which caused a
disturbance in that area. In certain cases, especially under Ottoman
occupation, Orthodox women were forced to marry Muslim men, and the Church
allowed this by necessity and kept them in good standing with the Church. Even
divorce and remarriage, which is not allowed in the Orthodox Church, is allowed
in certain circumstances, depending on jurisdiction. Therefore, if there are
any questions regarding the above Canons and prohibitions, refer to your local
Priest, who can refer to his Bishop. Any deviation, however, can only be
blessed by the local Bishop, yet deviation is highly discouraged, as St.
Nikodemos informs us above.
The
Church always has the interests of her members in mind, but it must responsibly
and faithfully apply its rules to individuals for the good of the entire Church
and her mission, and even for the sake of the world at large.
By John Sanidopoulos
By John Sanidopoulos
Source: http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2013/03/prohibited-marriages-in-orthodox-church.html
