Marriage

[Suaidan]

Well the question at hand is whether a marriage contracted outside the church has or can have any validity. You seem to be saying it does not, but then why does the Church not insist that a person entering the Church alone leave their spouse? Or is that what you meant by recognizing the "intent"?

The Church's teaching is obvious in Scripture: the believing spouse "sanctifies" the other spouse. That said, the Church has always granted privilege to separate in such a circumstance without penalty.

I believe St Ambrose also argued that a man who divorces before baptism is not eligible for the priesthood, so he certainly believed that marriage outside the Church had some substance.

This is of course about two non-Orthodox people marrying and then one converting while the other remains outside the Church, just to be clear.

I'd have to see the quote, but eligibility for the priesthood is a totally different question than the validity of marriage, due to the purity of the ordinand.

[Jean-Serge]

In the case of the Orthodox Christian man marrying a Muslim, if he were to divorce her and send her back to Iraq, she would be killed by her relatives for adultery as her relatives do not recognize the civil marriage since he is not Muslim. Apparently, the OCA has allowed him to continue to be married to her with the hope that she will ultimately convert, but their marriage is not sacramental. He suffers a lot of verbal abuse from her as she calls him an infidel for not converting to Islam. Lord have mercy.

Strange stituation. In islam, a muslim lady cannot marry a non-muslim; it is very strange that she accepted to marry him in Iraq without him converting to islam. Islamicly speaking, their marriage is not marriage but simple fornication. The story is very, very strange. I suspect hidden things. Maybe the two parts are not telling everything or have had secret intentions while entering in marriage.

[Maria]

In the case of the Orthodox Christian man marrying a Muslim, if he were to divorce her and send her back to Iraq, she would be killed by her relatives for adultery as her relatives do not recognize the civil marriage since he is not Muslim. Apparently, the OCA has allowed him to continue to be married to her with the hope that she will ultimately convert, but their marriage is not sacramental. He suffers a lot of verbal abuse from her as she calls him an infidel for not converting to Islam. Lord have mercy.

Strange stituation. In islam, a muslim lady cannot marry a non-muslim; it is very strange that she accepted to marry him in Iraq without him converting to islam. Islamicly speaking, their marriage is not marriage but simple fornication. The story is very, very strange. I suspect hidden things. Maybe the two parts are not telling everything or have had secret intentions while entering in marriage.

I think both parties had expectations that the other would convert. The wife hoping to win her husband over to Islam, and the husband, his wife to Orthodoxy.