Hello...

My fiancee is Serbian Orthodox. I was raised for the first few years of my life as a Jehovah's Witness, who baptize members as adults so I am not baptized.

My questions: Do I need to get baptized before I can marry in the Serbian Orthodox Church? If yes, what is the process involved and does it have to be a baptism in a Serbian Orthodox Church...or just Orthodox?

Also, my fiancee was married before, but not in a church; does he have to have the marriage annulled if it was never recognized by his church?

Thank you for your help!

-- Jessica Trotter (jessicaltrotter@hotmail.com), April 15, 2004

Answers

Bump!!!

-- ZAROVE (ZAROFF3@JUNO.COM), April 15, 2004.

Someone may need to correct me here, but you should ask Orthodox authorities. This is a Catholic site. We are separate from Orthodox. Good luck.

-- Mark Advent (adventm5477@earthlink.net), April 15, 2004.

As far as baptism goes, you should be fine if you remain within the OCA (Orthodox Church in America, http://www.oca.org/). I don't know about the GOA (Greek Orthodox) or ROCOR (Russian Orthodox). Note that you cannot just go in and get baptized; you must undertake a study of the Orthodox faith for a prolonged period.

The Orthodox don't do annulments like Catholics do, so there is no problem with your fiancee's prior marriage.

-- Mark (aujus_1066@yahoo.com), April 15, 2004.

This Question & Answer from the OCA website indicates that you must be baptized in order to marry, but another question indicated that another Christian denomination might be acceptable as long as you agreed to raise the children Orthodox.

-- Mark (aujus_1066@yahoo.com), April 15, 2004.

Mark,

Given the post above that this is a Catholic website, may I ask the purpose for giving the advice you have posted here?

-- Pat Delaney (pat@patdelaney.net), April 16, 2004.

Thank you for the information. I apologize if I offended anyone by asking for advice about Orthodox rules on a Catholic site, but I couldn't find answers anywhere else and noticed that people posted qustions concerning the Orthodox religion previously. My fiance's church is 2000 miles away and there are no Serbian Orthodox churches where we live for me to consult in person.

Mark, thank you for providing the site for the Orthodox Church in America and for the information. It helped explain a lot.

-- Jessica (jessicaltrotter@hotmail.com), April 16, 2004.

Jessica,

I'm sorry that you weren't made to feel more welcome at this forum. If you have additional questions that you would like to be answered by an Orthodox priest, Fr. John Matusiak (of the Q&A section) at the OCA site is very friendly and helpful. If you would like to have some general discussions with Orthodox Christians and others in your position, you can visit the BeliefNet.com Eastern Orthodox Discussion Board, e.g., this question on interfaith marriages. I wish you the best in your faith journey.

Pat,

In addition to helping Jessica out, I had thought that other Catholics might be interested in learning more about our separated brethren in a Sister Church, as Pope John Paul II had commended.

-- Mark (aujus_1066@yahoo.com), April 16, 2004.

I am an Serbian Ortodox and i know if you want to marry a Serbian Ortodox person not only you have to be baptised, you have to convert to this religion. I think it can be a Greek church also. If you want to know more e-mail me. Hope it helps. All the best

-- Natalija (natali442@aol.com), May 02, 2004.

Jessica,

Yes, you probably will be required to be baptized.

Also, someone in an early post said that Orthodox don't do annullments. Actually that's untrue. At least in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese they do have anullments under certain circumstances. However, given the facts you've laid out for us. The marriage would probably not be recognized in the first place since it was not performed by a priest.

Best of luck to you and your fiancee.

Hope that's helpful.

-- Fr. Mike Skrocki, JCD (cand) (abounamike@aol.com), May 02, 2004.