In what buildings did these two ceremonies take place? I ask this because the picture of the Protestant ceremony shows the congregation standing, and I had assumed that, like English churches, German Protestant churches had pews.
Ann
The Orthodox ceremony was at the Chapel of the Winter Palace, and the Protestant one was somewhere in the Palace too, need to dig up what room exactly.
Perhaps this is an appropriate place to comment upon a phrase which reoccurs here and in various other threads on the AP Forum on the wedding service: “marriage vows”.
Such as: “they were true to their marriage vows”, “he / she never violated their marriage vows”; “facing each other and exchanging their vows”, etc.
Well, it may come as a bit of a surprise to the members of the Forum who are not Orthodox Christians (the majority, no doubt), but there are
no vows in the marriage service of the Orthodox Church. Most of those concepts and ideas are expressed in the Scriptural readings and the prayers during the service itself, but the bride and groom do not pronounce any vows to each other.
Actually, they are silent, except for when they reply to the two questions posed by the priest to the groom and bride in turn:
1) “Do you intend, without compulsion, to wed the person here before you?”
Response: “Yes.”
2) “Have you promised yourself to any other person?”
Response: “No”.
And that is all they say during the entire service.
On various other threads Georgiy of NZ has already mentioned various aspects of his own Orthodox wedding when it pertained to the topic at hand.
The full text of the Orthodox Christian marriage service can be found here in Isabel Hapgood’s translation:
https://archive.org/details/ServiceBookOfHolyOrthodoxChurchByHapgoodSeveral explanations of the beautiful symbolism of the Orthodox wedding service can be found on line. Here is one such site:
http://www.kurskroot.com/orthodox_wedding.htmlAs you can see, the Orthodox wedding service differs significantly from those in the West — whether Roman Catholic or Protestant. And it reflects the difference between the Eastern Christian concept of marriage and that in the Western tradition.
In the West, from Roman times, marriage has been viewed as an agreement, or contract of sorts, between a man and a woman who themselves act as the agents that perform or solemnize the wedding itself. For many centuries the presence of a minister of the Church was not even a formal requirement.
The wedding ceremony may take place in a church, and with a priest or minister present to bless the event, but it is still the couple themselves who are perceived to be the active contractors of the marriage. Hence the vows to each other.
For a better elucidation of this point, see the following sites:
Roman Catholic canon law on contracting a marriage:
http://www.catholicdoors.com/misc/marriage/canonlaw.htmSome other Christian views on marriage:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_views_on_marriageSpecifically, on the Roman Catholic understanding:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_marriage“Thus, for most of Church history in the Western or Latin Church, marriage has been celebrated (as in traditions such as the Roman and Judaic) without clergy and was done according to local customs. While in the East the priest was and is seen as the minister of the sacrament, in the West the two parties to the marriage, if baptized, were the ministers, and their concordant word was sufficient proof of the existence of a sacramental marriage.
“… The Catholic Church also has requirements before Catholics can be considered validly married in the eyes of the Church. A valid Catholic marriage results from four elements: (1) the spouses are free to marry; (2) they freely exchange their consent; (3) in consenting to marry, they have the intention to marry for life, to be faithful to one another and be open to children; and (4) their consent is given in the canonical form, i.e., in the presence of two witnesses and before a properly authorized church minister. Exceptions to the last requirement must be approved by church authority.
On the Eastern Orthodox Church and marriage:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_in_the_Eastern_Orthodox_Church“Unlike Western Christianity, Eastern Christians do not consider the sacramental aspect of the marriage to be conferred by the couple themselves. Rather, the marriage is conferred by the action of the Holy Spirit acting through the priest. Furthermore, no one besides a bishop or priest—not even a deacon—may perform the Sacred Mystery.”
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One reason for mentioning this matter of there being no vows in the Orthodox Church’s marriage service is to point out how ridiculous some authors of this period have been to claim that Tsar Nicholas II was supposedly such a dolt that he had to be prompted during his own wedding service since he had forgotten the text of the vows.
The same can be said of many other accounts of the Emperor and Empress’ wedding which contain attributes of a Western marriage service. It simply didn’t happen that way.
Inok Nikolai