Orthodox wedding in Romania

Hello everyone! I am planning to get married with my Romanian partner, and I was wondering about the church wedding. We already have the civil marriage figured out according to Romanian legislation and formalities.

My question is, as a former member of the Evangelical Lutheran church of Sweden, will I be able to go through the Orthodox ceremony or do I have to join the Orthodox church first? Will the priest conducting the ceremony want to check a foreigner's papers or how does it work?

Thanks in advance to anyone who possibly knows about this stuff!

Welcome to the Forum :)

As both are Christian churches in their own right, I could not imagine that you would be required to change churches. I have never heard of priests wanting to check papers. But in my experience priests do tend to want to sit with the happy couple and talk about their faiths, then of course plan the service.

But saying that even within the same church, all priests are different. You would really need to visit a local church, attend one of their services and get a feeling for the place.

Congratulations on your forthcoming marriage. :top:

I hope in what I have said is of help to you :)

Technically the Romanian Orthodox Church does not allow it. Apparently you have to get a special dispensation: they may ask you to be baptised in the orthodox religion first or give them your first born child. There was a similar situation in 2016 between a German and a Romanian.

I had no trouble, even being an informal lapsed Baptist.  But I had to read aloud something or other swearing to this that and the other thing.  I have no idea what it was - the priest only had it in Romanian and German.  I chose German because I could at least pronounce it, even if I didn't fully grasp what I was reading.


NB: We did it in Augsburg, Germany; not Romania.

Thank you all for your responses, I appreciate your time! We'll see how things turn out :)

I believe that, under Orthodox canon law, you will be able to marry an Orthodox Christian without converting, but you will be required to agree to raise any children you have in the Orthodox faith.  You won't be able to get married during a fasting period such as the Nativity fast (Nov. 15 - Dec. 25, every year) or Great Lent (March 11, 2019 through April 28, 2019).  (Check the calendar, as we have a lot more of them.) The service is a beautiful one, and ,as someone told me, "Once you get married in the Orthodox Church, you know you're married!"  Best wishes, congratulations, and may God grant you many years!