Eastern Orthodox views on divorce and remarriage

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notsmart

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Example:

2 non baptised non christians get married. They get divorced.
One gets remarried to a non baptised non christian.
Both incidents were in a courthouse.
Is an declaration of nulity needed to procede to become a baptised and full member of the Eastern Orthodox Church?
Is my current marriage a problem to do this?
 
notsmart said:
Example:

2 non baptised non christians get married. They get divorced.
One gets remarried to a non baptised non christian.
Both incidents were in a courthouse.
Is an declaration of nulity needed to procede to become a baptised and full member of the Eastern Orthodox Church?
Is my current marriage a problem to do this?
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While I know your asking the Eastern Orthodox position on this, since the thread involves divorce in general, I would be happy to offer our own Lutheran position on the subject.

God reserves the ultimate right to end marriages properly, and he does so through the death of a spouse. Divorce, a premature terminating of a marriage, always involves sin of some kind, on the part of one and sometimes on the part of both marital partners. Each situation needs to be examined on its own. The two reasons that give a wronged spouse the freedom to declare a marriage over (publicly and legally) after a guilty partner has basically ended the marriage are (1) marital unfaithfulness and (2) malicious desertion. By “malicious” we mean a willful, unilateral, and permanent desertion.

Everyone (I would hope) understands marital unfaithfulness. By desertion, this stems from St. Paul’s discussion of the topic in 1 Corinthians 7. Desertion can take many forms. It could involve physical separation; it could involve complete emotional detachment. In a worst case scenario, it would involve abuse. Either verbal or physical. On the one hand, the Lord states, "What God has joined together, let man not separate (The Sixth Commandment). Yet he also says, “You shall not kill” (The Fifth Commandment). We recall that the Fifth Commandment also applies to ourselves in that we shouldn’t put our life or the lives of our loved ones at undue risk.

Because the abusing person has willfully persisted in his sinful behavior, he has violated the marriage bond and deserted his wife. He is the guilty partner even though his wife may be the one who actually seeks the divorce.

In such cases where a divorce ends because of one of those two reasons…the offended party is free to remarry without sin.
 
Is this any impediment to baptism in the proper Trinitarian Formula? And is there any paperwork or authority that must review this?
 
notsmart said:
Is this any impediment to baptism in the proper Trinitarian Formula? And is there any paperwork or authority that must review this?
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No. If the reasons given in my previous post apply to a divorce, you will not need to prove it or show any documentation.
 
TriuneUnity said:
No. If the reasons given in my previous post apply to a divorce, you will not need to prove it or show any documentation.
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Okay, I will have no problem giving ample evidence of my incident, but I am unaware of where he is. I suppose, I could pay for a check on his whereabouts.

I assume, I should ask God to forgive us both for the whole thing also, but I dont think I can put off baptism now that my child is asking about Jesus, and I am willing to walk this road for her sake, in her best interest. I cant wait for formal inquiries to be good enough to do a simple baptism!

What if either of us die? I would be to blame if we ended up in hell!😦
 
notsmart said:
Okay, I will have no problem giving ample evidence of my incident, but I am unaware of where he is. I suppose, I could pay for a check on his whereabouts.

I assume, I should ask God to forgive us both for the whole thing also, but I dont think I can put off baptism now that my child is asking about Jesus, and I am willing to walk this road for her sake, in her best interest. I cant wait for formal inquiries to be good enough to do a simple baptism!

What if either of us die? I would be to blame if we ended up in hell!😦
Click to expand...
Well, all I can really say there is in your situation, you were perfectly within your rights to initiate a divorce. You would not be questioned about such a subject to the inth degree, nor should you. Any sin you may have committed as part of the situation will be washed away by your Baptism.
 
Looks like I and she will be getting baptised much sooner than I thought.👍
 
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