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Married life, no less than monastic life, is a special vocation, requiring a particular gift or [[charisma]] from the [[Holy Spirit]], a gift bestowed in the sacrament of Holy Matrimony. The same Trinitarian mystery of unity in diversity applies to the doctrine of marriage as it does to the Church. The family created by this sacrament is a small church.
The Orthodox Church teaches that man is made in the image of the [[Trinity]], and he is not intended by God to live alone, but in a family, except in special cases. And just as God blessed the first family, commanding [[Adam and Eve]] to be fruitful and multiply, so the Church now gives its blessing to the union of man and woman. The sacrament mystery of Christian marriage, in the Church, gives a man and a woman the possibility to become one spirit and one flesh in a way which no human love can provide by itself. The Holy Spirit is given so that what has begun on earth is fulfilled and continues most perfectly in the Kingdom of God.
==Marriage service==
{{Services}}
==Mixed marriage ==
The Christian sacrament mystery of marriage can only be available to those who belong to the Church; that is, meant for baptized i.e., to communicants. Dispensation may be sought from one's diocesan bishop in cases on mixed marriages between an Orthodox Christian and a Christian of a nobnon-Orthodox but Trinitarian church (ege.g., Roman Catholic, Lutheran, et. aletc.)
==Widows and widowers==